THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


GIFT  OF 


C.  G.  Roberts 


Great  Portraits 


THE  LAUGHING  CAVALIER 


Great   Portraits 

As  Seen  and  Described 
by    Great    Writers 

EDITED  AND  TRANSLATED 

BY  ESTHER  SINGLETON 

AUTHOR  OF  "  TURRETS,  TOWERS  AND  TEMPLES,"  "  GREAT  PIC- 
TURES," "WONDERS  OF  NATURE,"  "ROMANTIC  CASTLES  AND 
PALACES,"  "  FAMOUS  PAINTINGS,"  «  HISTORIC  BUILDINGS," 
"  FAMOUS  WOMEN,"  "  GOLDEN  ROD  FAIRY  BOOK,"  "  PARIS," 
"  LONDON,"  "  VENICE,"  "  RUSSIA,"  "  JAPAN,"  "  LOVE  IN 
LITERATURE  AND  ART,"  AND  "  A  GUIDE  TO  THE  OPERA  " 

With  Numerous  Illustrations 


NEW  YORK 

DODD,  MEAD  &  COMPANY 
1905 


Copyright,  iqof 
BY  DODD,  MEAD  &  COMPANY 

Published  October,  1905. 


GIF! 


A/7S7S" 


Preface 

IT  is  hard  for  us  in  this  day  of  photographs  to  realize 
what  portrait-painting  meant  to  the  world  even  as  late 
as  a  century  ago.  The  only  way  to  record  the  features  and 
figure  was  by  means  of  pencil  or  brush ;  hence  the  art  of 
portraiture  became  a  most  important  and  lucrative  branch 
of  painting.  The  greatest  masters  excelled  in  it,  and  some 
of  them  are  remembered  chiefly,  if  not  solely,  by  their  por- 
traits. 

It  is  impossible  within  the  limits  of  a  small  volume 
adequately  to  represent  all  of  the  great  masters  of  portrai- 
ture ;  but  I  have  endeavoured  to  present  as  many  styles  of 
treatment  and  varieties  of  subject  as  possible,  besides  includ- 
ing certain  portraits  of  renown.  The  book  will,  therefore, 
offer  many  interesting  points  of  study  ;  for  many  of  the 
selections  describe  the  canvas  briefly  and  dwell  at  length 
upon  the  artist's  method  of  work  and  his  peculiarities  of 
touch  and  treatment.  The  reader  can,  therefore,  study  the 
many  styles  from  the  realistic  works  of  Frans  Hals,  as  ex- 
emplified in  The  Laughing  Cavalier,  Maria  Voogt,  Hille 
Bobbe  and  others,  Van  Eyck's  Man  with  the  Pinks,  Titian's 
Infant  Daughter  of  Roberto  Strozzi,  Raphael's  Maddalena 
Doni,  Julius  II.,  Balthazar  Castiglione  and  Young  Man, 
Velasquez's  Philip  17.,  Holbein's  Jane  Seymour,  Raeburn's 
John  Tait  and  his  Grandson  and  Clouet's  Elizabeth  of 


104 


VI  PREFACE 

Austria,  to  the  idealized  and  graceful  studies  of  Lely, 
Nattier  and  Drouais,  reaching  at  length  the  daring  feat  of 
painting  ideas  that  lie  outside  the  realm  of  portraiture  as 
Whistler  has  done  in  the  portrait  of  his  mother  and  Rossetti 
in  the  Beata  Beatrix.  The  latter,  described  by  Mr.  F.  G. 
Stephens  as  a  "  spiritual  translation  "  of  the  features  of  the 
artist's  wife,  perhaps,  carries  portraiture  beyond  its  limits 
into  a  mystical  world. 

The  omission  of  some  of  the  most  celebrated  portraits 
such  as  Leonardo  da  Vinci's  Mona  Lisa,  Guido  Reni's 
Beatrice  Cenci,  Holbein's  Georg  Gisze,  De  la  Tour's 
Madame  de  Pompadour,  Velasquez's  Innocent  X.,  Titian's 
La  Bella,  Bellini's  Doge  Loredano,  Gainsborough's  Mrs. 
Siddons,  Moroni's  Tailor,  Van  Dyck's  Charles  II.  of  the 
Louvre,  Luini's  Columbine,  and  Reynolds's  Lady  Cockburn 
and  her  Children  will  be  noticed ;  but  these  have  already 
appeared  in  Great  Pictures  and  Famous  Paintings  of  this 
series.  E.  S. 

NEW  YORK,  July,  1905. 


Contents 


THE  LAUGHING  CAVALIER      .         .     Frans  Hals        .         .         I 

GERALD  S.  DAVIES. 

THE  TRAGIC  MUSE       .         .         .     Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  .         6 
CLAUDE  PHILLIPS. 

PORTRAIT  OP  A  YOUNG  MAN  .         .     Raphael  .         .         .14 
F.  A  GRUYER. 

SOPHIE  ARNOULD  .         .         .     Greuze    ...       20 

M.  H.  SPIELMANN. 

DON  BALTHAZAR  CARLOS        .          .      Velasquez          .         .       23 
SIR  WALTER  ARMSTRONG. 

MRS.  SHERIDAN    ....      Gainsborough     .         .       28 
LORD  RONALD  GOWER. 

CHARLES  I.  ....     Van  Dyck          .         .       34 

H.  KNACKFUSS. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  GIRL  .         .     Boucher   ...       43 
CH.  MOREAU-VAUTHIER. 

THE  DONNA  VELATA    .         .         .     Raphael  ...       46 
JULIA  CARTWRIGHT. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN  .         .     Andrea  del  Sarto        .       50 
COSMO  MONKHOUSE. 

THE  DAUGHTER  OF  ROBERTO  STROZZI    Titian      .         .         -53 
J.  A.  CROWE  AND  J.  B.  CAVALCASELLE. 

THE  AMBASSADORS         .         .         .     Hans  Holbein     .         .       56 
SIR  WALTER  ARMSTRONG. 

NELLY  O'BRIEN  ....     Sir  Joshua,  Reynolds  .       6 1 
M.  H.  SPIELMANN. 


Vlll  CONTENTS 

THE  MAN  WITH  THE  PINKS    .          .     John  Van  Eyck  .       64 

FRANCIS  C.  WEALE. 

THE  THREE  SISTERS       .         .          .     Palma  Vecchio  .         .       71 
CH.  MOREAU-VAUTHIER. 

JOHN  TAIT  AND  His  GRANDSON       .     Raeburn  ...       74 
R.  A.  M.  STEVENSON. 

SOME  PORTRAITS  OF  HELENA  FOUR- 

MENT Rubens     ...       83 

EMILE  MICHEL. 

PHILIP  IV Velasquez          .         .       95 

CARL  JUSTI. 

LA  BELLE  FERRONNIERE          .         .     Leonardo  da  Vinci      .       99 
F.  A.  GRUYER. 

STUDY         .....     Fragonard         .         .104 
CH.  MOREAU-VAUTHIER. 

LAVINIA  FENTON  AS  POLLY  PEACHUM     Hogarth   .         .         .107 
AUSTIN  DOBSON. 

PORTRAITS  OF  SASKIA     .          .         .     Rembrandt        .         .      112 
MALCOLM  BELL. 

PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN  .          .     Holbein     .         .         .123 
SIR  WALTER  ARMSTRONG. 

LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA    .          .          .     Sandra  Botticelli         .      1 26 
JULIA  CARTWRIGHT. 

MARIA  VOOGT  AND  ELIZABETH  BAS,  Frans  Hals  and  Rembrandt     1 40 

GERALD  S.  DAVIES. 
LAVINIA  VECELLI  .          .          .      Titian      .         .         .146 

J.  A.  CROWE  AND  G.  B.  CAVALCASELLE. 
BALTHAZAR  CASTIGLIONE         .          .      Raphael   .          .          .152 

F.  A.  GRUYER. 

THE  HON.  MRS.  GRAHAM     .          .      Gainsborough     .          .162 
I.     LORD  RONALD  SUTHERLAND  GOWER. 
II.     CH.  MOREAU-VAUTHIER. 


CONTENTS  IX 

LA  DUCHESSE  DE  CHARTREs  AS  HEBE     Nattier     .         .         .      1 70 
LADY  DILKE. 

EMMA,    LADY    HAMILTON     ("  NA- 
TURE ")        ....     Romney    .         .         .177 
HUMPHREY  WARD. 

THE  SIBYL  AND  THE  LADY  WITH  A 

FAN     .....      Velasquez          .         .190 
CARL  JUSTI. 

MRS.  SIDDONS      ....     Sir  Thomas  Lawrence     199 
LORD  RONALD  SUTHERLAND  GOWER. 

CHARACTER  PORTRAITS  .          .     Frans  Hals        .         .     209 

GERALD  S.  DAVIES. 

PORTRAIT  OF  MY  MOTHER     .          .      Whistler  .         .         .219 
CH.  MOREAU-VAUTHIER. 

MARIE  ANTOINETTE  AS  HEBE  .     Drouais    .         .          .224 

F.  A.  GRUYER. 

PHILIP  II.  OF  SPAIN  .         .      Titian      .         .         .234 

J.  A.  CROWE  AND  G.  B.  CAVALCASELLE. 

MRS.  SCOTT  MONCRIEFF        .         .     Sir  Henry  Raeburn    .     241 
JAMES  L.  CAW. 

THE  CHILDREN  OF  CHARLES  I.        .     Van  Dyck          .         .     249 
H.  KNACKFUSS. 

JANE  SEYMOUR      ....     Holbein     .          .         .252 
ALFRED  WOLTMANN. 

HIERONYMUS  HOLZSCHUHER    .         .     Durer      .         .         .258 

GUSTAVE  GRUYER. 
BEATA  BEATRIX    ....     Rossetti    .         .         .     264 

F.  G.  STEPHENS. 
MADDALENA  DONI         .          .          .     Raphael  .         .         .271 

JULIA  CARTWRIGHT. 

PHILIP  IV.  OF  SPAIN     .         .         .     Velasquez          .         .     276 
CLAUDE  PHILLIPS. 


X  CONTENTS 

LUCREZIA  TORNABUONI          .         .     Botticelli .         .         .283 
ALPHONSK  DE  CALONNE. 

PORTRAIT  OF  BERTIN  THE  ELDER     .     Ingres      .         .         .     290 
GUSTAVE  LARROUMET. 

MADAME  HENRIETTE  DE  FRANCE      .     Nattier    .         .         .     297 

ANDRE  PERATE. 

* 

ELIZABETH  OF  AUSTRIA  .         .     Clouet      .         .         .302 

SAMUEL  ROCHEBLAVE. 

MADAME  VIGEE  LE  BRUN  AND  HER 

DAUGHTER   ....     Vigee  Le  Brun  .         .     307 
ANDRE  MICHEL. 

ELIZABETH,  QUEEN  OF  BOHEMIA      .     Honthorst          .         .314 
WILLIAM  CHAMBERS  LEFROY. 

THE  COUNTESS  DE  GRAMMONT        .     Lely         .         .         .322 

I.     MRS.  JAMESON. 

II.     WILLIAM  SHARP. 

POPE  JULIUS  II Raphael  .         .         .331 

H.  KNACKFUSS. 

THE  DUCHESS  OF  DEVONSHIRE         .     Gainsborough     .         .     338 
MRS.  ARTHUR  BELL. 


Illustrations 


HALS    .    .    . 

REYNOLDS  . 
RAPHAEL  .  . 
GREUZE  .  . 
VELASQUEZ  . 
GAINSBOROUGH 
VAN  DYCK  . 
BOUCHER  .  . 
RAPHAEL  .  . 
A.  DEL  SARTO 
TITIAN  .  .  . 
HOLBEIN  .  . 
REYNOLDS 
J.  VAN  EYCK  . 
P.  VECCHIO  . 


RUBENS 


The  Laughing  Cavalier Frontispiece 

London 


The  Tragic  Muse 


FACING  PAGE 

6 


Dulwich 


Portrait  of  a  Young  Man 14 

Paris 

Sophie  Arnould 20 

London 

Don  Balthazar  Carlos 24 

Madrid 

Mrs.  Sheridan  and  Mrs.  Tickell 28 

Dulwich 

Charles  I. 34 

Dresden 

Portrait  of  a  Young  Girl 44 

Paris 

The  Donna  Velata 46 

Florence 

Portrait  of  a  Young  Man 50 

London 

The  Daughter  of  R.  Strozzi 54 

Berlin 

The  Ambassadors 56 

London 

Nelly  O'Brien 62 

London 

The  Man  with  the  Pinks 64 

Berlin 

The  Three  Sisters 72 

Dresden 

Helena  Fourment  with  Her  Children  ....       84 

Paris 

Helena  Fourment 90 

St.  Petersburg 


Xll 

VELASQUEZ    .  . 

L.  DA  VINCI  .  . 

FRAGONARD  .  . 

HOGARTH  .    .  . 

REMBRANDT  .  . 

HOLBEIN  .    .  . 


BOTTICELLI 


F.  HALS  AND 
REMBRANDT 


TITIAN  .... 
RAPHAEL  .  .  . 
GAINSBOROUGH  . 
ROMNEY  .  .  . 
VELASQUEZ  .  . 
LAWRENCE 


F.  HALS 


WHISTLER     .    . 
DROUAIS   . 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Philip  IV.  of  Spain 96 

Dulwich 

La  Belle  Ferronniere 100 

Paris 


Study 


Paris 


104 


Lavinia  Fenton  as  Polly  Peachum 108 

London 

Saskia  holding  a  Pink 112 

Dresden 

Portrait  of  a  Young  Man 124 

Vienna 

La  Bella  Simonetta 126 

Florence 

La  Bella  Simonetta  as  Pallas 134 

Florence 

Maria  Voogt       140 

Elizabeth  Bas 144 

Amsterdam 

Lavinia  Vecelli  -with  Fruit 146 

Berlin 

Balthazar  Castiglione 152 

Paris 

The  Hon.  Mrs.  Graham 162 

Edinburgh 

Emma  Lady  Hamilton  ("  Nature"}   .     .     .     .     178 

Parts 

The  Lady  with  a  Fan 190 

London 

Mrs.  Siddons 200 

London 


The  Jester 


210 


Amsterdam 


Hille  Bobbe 214 

Berlin 

The  Gipsy 216 

Paris 

Portrait  of  My  Mother 220 

Paris 

Marie  Antoinette  as  Hebe 224 

Chantilly 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Xlll 


TITIAN  .... 
RAEBURN  .  .  . 
VAN  DYCK  .  . 
HOLBEIN  .  .  . 
DURER  .... 

ROSfETTI    .      .      . 

RAPHAEL  .  .  . 
BOTTICELLI  .  . 
INGRES  .... 
CLOUET  .  .  . 
VIGIE  LE  BRUN 
HONTHORST  .  . 
LELY  .... 
GAINSBOROUGH  . 


Philip  II.  of  Spain 234 

Madrid 

Mrs.  Scott  Moncrieff 242 

Edinburgh 

The  Children  of  Charles  1. 250 

Dresden 


Jane  Seymour 


Vienna 


252 


H.  Holzschuher 258 

Berlin 

Beata  Beatrix 264 

London 

Maddalena  Doni 272 

Pitti 

Lucrezia  Tornabuoni 284 

Frankfort 


Bertin  the  Elder  .     . 
Elizabeth  of  Austria 


Paris 


Paris 


290 


302 


Madame  Vigee  Le  Brun  and  Her  Daughter     .     308 

Paris 


Elizabeth,  Queen  of  Bohemia 


London 


3'4 


The  Countess  de  Grammont   .      HamptonCourt    322 

Palace 

The  Duchess  of  Devonshire 338 


THE  LAUGHING  CAVALIER 

(Frans  Hals) 

GERALD  S.  DA  VIES 

i 

A  SURVEY  of  the  portraits  which  Frans  Hals  painted 
will  disabuse  the  mind  of  at  least  one  prejudice  con- 
cerning the  great  painter.  It  will  go  far  to  put  an  end  to 
the  view,  which  has  been  expressed  by  many  writers,  that 
Hals  was  a  mere  painter  of  externals ;  one  who  caught  the 
surface  peculiarities  of  a  man  and  could  present  them  to  us 
with  astonishing  verve  and  vraisemblance — much,  indeed, 
like  Charles  Dickens  in  literature — but  who  did  not  pene- 
trate beneath  the  surface,  or  read  the  inner  man  very 
subtly.  One  may  fully  grant  that  Frans  Hals  was  not  a 
thinker  in  the  sense  in  which  Rembrandt,  Velasquez,  and 
even  Van  Dyck,  were  thinkers  ;  and  there  are,  I  dare  say, 
very  few  of  us  who  have  not  at  some  time  or  other,  in 
standing  before  one  of  Hals's  brilliant,  dashing  bits  of  rapid 
character-catching,  found  ourselves  expressing  the  inward 
doubt  whether  Hals  realized  that  his  sitters  had  souls  at  all. 
The  injustice  is  due,  I  am  persuaded,  to  the  fact  that  few 
people  have  ever  taken  the  trouble  to  view  Hals  as  a  whole. 
For  some  reason,  there  has  been  an  unconscious  conspiracy, 
both  among  picture-lovers  and  writers,  to  think  of  him 
through  one  OF  two  of  his  most  astonishing,  and,  indeed,  in- 
comparable achievements  as  a  rapid  setter-down  of  facial 


2  THE  LAUGHING  CAVALIER 

expression.  But  anyone  who  has  stood  long  before  the 
gentleman  and  his  wife  of  the  Cassel  Gallery ;  the  Jacob 
Olycan  and  Aletta  Hanemans  of  the  Hague ;  the  Albert 
Van  der  Meer  and  his  wife  of  Haarlem  ;  the  Beresteyn  pair 
of  the  Louvre ;  the  old  housewife  of  the  same  gallery,  and, 
above  all,  the  consummate  portrait  of  Maria  Voogt,  1639, 
at  Amsterdam,  not  to  speak  of  many  others,  will  have  to 
reconsider  his  verdict.  Hals  has  shown  himself  in  these  to 
be  as  perfectly  capable  of  handling  a  worthy  face  with  quiet 
dignity  and  full  insight — remember  that  his  sitters  were 
Dutch,  who  do  not  carry  their  souls  upon  their  faces,  nor 
their  hearts  upon  their  sleeves — as  he  was  capable  of  setting 
down  the  rapidly-passing  expression  of  his  Laughing  Cav- 
alier, his  Jester  at  Amsterdam,  his  Gipsy  Girl  of  the  Louvre, 
and  his  Hille  Bobbe  of  Berlin.  The  fact  that  he  painted 
these  latter,  and  more  like  them,  has  no  business  to  rob 
him  of  his  great  reputation  as  a  great  translator  of  the  more 
worthy  moods  of  man,  which  is  due  to  him  on  the  evidence 
of  a  far  larger  body  of  witnesses.  For  if  the  list  of  his 
portraits  be  perused,  it  will  be  found  that  these  laughing 
drinkers  and  jesters,  by  which  the  world  has  insisted  on 
judging  him,  are  in  quite  a  small  minority.  The  minority 
would  be  probably  far  more  strikingly  small,  if  anything 
like  the  tale  of  his  output  had  survived  to  us. 

And  I  shall  make  no  separate  classification  for  one  kind 
of  portrait  and  the  other.  As  I  have  already  said,  his 
jesters,  his  gipsies,  his  mountebanks,  his  fisher-boys  or  his 
fishwives,  are  just  as  much  portraits  as  the  others.  The 
fact  that  he  very  likely  picked  some  of  his  models  up  in  his 


THE  LAUGHING  CAVALIER  3 

pothouse,  and  others  in  the  street,  and  others  by  the  road- 
side, or  by  Zandvoort  dunes,  or  in  the  Haarlem  fish-market, 
and  carried  them  off  in  triumph  to  his  studio,  does  not  make 
them  a  whit  less  portraits.  These  were  the  only  kind  of 
sitters  who  would  consent  to  have  their  portraits  painted  to 
go  down  to  posterity  with  a  face  convulsed  with  laughter, 
or  contorted  with  some  passing  expression.  He  must 
either  use  that  kind  of  sitter — not  but  what  I  quite  admit 
that  Hals  probably  got  great  amusement  from  their  com- 
pany— or  abandon  that  field  of  art — facial  expression  under 
rapid  change,  which  was  the  problem  he  was  mastering. 
They  are  not  an  edifying  set  of  sitters ;  far  from  it ;  but 
the  artist  who  wants  to  get  a  model  who  will  sit  to  him 
with  a  broad  grin  on  his  face  will  not  find  his  man  among 
the  high-bred,  the  serious,  the  refined.  The  man  who  will 
sit  in  a  studio  with  a  stoup  of  ale  on  his  knee  and  laugh 
boisterously  at  little  or  nothing  at  all,  between  the  drains,  is 
not  a  refined  person.  But  he  gets  the  lines  of  his  face  into 
the  shapes  which  express  laughter  more  frequently  than  the 
doctor  of  laws  or  the  professor  of  mathematics,  and  Hals 
can  get  what  he  wants  from  him,  and  perhaps  a  rough  joke 
or  two  into  the  bargain. 

One  year  before  Hals  had  completed  the  Olycan  pair,1 
he  .had  painted  his  Portrait  of  an  Officer — known  as  The 
Laughing  Cavalier — of  the  Wallace  Collection,  1624.  Of 
Hals's  work  accessible  in  public  galleries  of  England,  no 
more  striking  specimen  exists.  Here,  indeed,  we  have  the 
painter  rejoicing  in  the  interpretation  of  a  phase  of  charac- 

1  Jacob  Olycan  and  his  wife,  1625,  both  at  The  Hague. 


4  THE  LAUGHING  CAVALIER 

ter  which  had  particular  attractions  for  him.  The  cavalier 
is  a  young,  well-fed,  well-kept  soldier,  quite  satisfied  with 
himself,  and  evidently  quite  untroubled  by  any  of  those 
deeper  searchings  of  the  mind  which  are  apt  to  leave  their 
print  upon  the  face.  The  smile  upon  his  face  is  certainly 
one  of  the  most  irresistible  things  that  ever  was  painted. 
It  is  not  a  laugh,  nor  a  leer,  nor  a  grin,  but  a  smile  which 
seems  ready  to  burst  into  a  laugh,  and,  as  you  watch  the 
face,  it  takes  slight  and  rapid  variations  of  expression,  so 
that  you  seem  to  see  the  look  which  has  just  passed  and 
that  which  is  just  to  come.  No  doubt  there  is  a  certain  air 
of  swagger, — a  characteristic  which  Hals  always  enjoyed  the 
rendering  of.  But  this  is  no  mere  swaggerer  or  swashbuck- 
ler. On  the  contrary,  there  is  a  force  and  even  a  fineness 
about  the  handsome  brows  that  tell  you  this  would  be  a  bad 
man  to  have  to  meet  in  an  encounter,  and  a  good  man  to 
have  to  follow  to  one.  Stand  before  this  man's  portrait, 
and  you  can  weave  for  him  a  history.  There  is  something 
more  than  mere  swagger  in  that  self-assertive  smile.  He 
looks  out  at  you  with  an  air  of  supreme  contempt  at  one 
moment,  of  supreme  good-nature  at  another ;  but  the  ex- 
pression is  full  of  changefulness,  full  of  that  electric  current 
which  plays  over  the  human  face  and  tells  you  while  you 
look  at  it  at  one  moment,  what  to  expect  from  the  next. 

This  was  not  a  reader  or  a  thinker,  but  he  was  not  a 
mere  vapourer  or  a  mere  braggart,  like  the  Merry  Toper  of 
the  Amsterdam  Gallery.  A  fighter  you  may  make  oath 
upon  that,  and  a  man  of  action  when  he  is  wanted. 

Technically  it  is  the  highest  merit,  and  is  nearly,  if  not 


THE  LAUGHING  CAVALIER  5 

quite,  as  it  left  the  painter's  hands.  Even  as  it  hangs  on 
that  wall  in  the  company  of  Rembrandt,  of  Van  Dyck,  of 
Velasquez,  it  yields  to  none  in  that  particular.  It  is  for  a 
man's  portrait  more  highly  wrought  than  is  his  wont.  The 
handling  is  not  so  fierce,  if  one  may  use  the  expression,  as, 
for  example,  in  his  Doelen  pictures.  It  represents  the  half- 
way between  the  St.  Joris  of  1616  and  the  St.  Joris  of 
1627.  Viewed  close,  the  detail  is  somewhat  more  exact 
and  less  the  production  of  summarized  knowledge  than  is 
often  the  case.  Even  the  lace  collar  is,  for  a  man's  portrait 
by  him,  highly  wrought. 

There  is  no  strong  colour  in  the  picture.  The  elaborate 
broidery  is  all  in  low-tone  orange-yellow  on  a  cloth  of  blue 
gray.  There  is  not  a  bit  of  pure  vermilion,  or  crimson,  or 
blue  in  the  picture.  And  yet  the  impression  left  by  the 
picture  certainly  is  that  its  scale  is  somewhat  higher  than 
many  of  Hals's  individual  portraits.  The  explanation  lies 
doubtless  in  the  fact  that  the  picture  is  slightly  wanting  in 
atmosphere,  and  does  not  go  behind  its  frame. 


THE  TRAGIC  MUSE 

(Sir  'Joshua  Reynolds) 

CLAUDE  PHILLIPS 

IT  was  in  this  year  (1783)  that  Sir  Joshua  first  came  into 
a  closer  intimacy  with  Mrs.  Siddons,  and  painted  that 
famous  portrait  of  the  actress  as  the  Tragic  Muse,  which, 
if  possible,  enhanced  his  own  reputation  with  his  con- 
temporaries, and  certainly  conferred  a  new  immortality  on 
the  great  performer  whose  features  and  aspect  it  per- 
petuated. 

As  far  back  as  1775,  she  had  appeared  in  London,  in 
Garrick's  last  season,  as  Portia  in  The  Merchant  of  Venice, 
and  as  Lady  Anne  to  his  Richard  III.,  but  made  then  no 
particular  mark,  either  because  she  was  overpowered  by  the 
sunset  radiance  of  the  sinking  luminary  of  tragedy,  or 
more  probably,  because  her  powers  were  not  yet  mature. 
Returning  to  town  in  1782,  when  there  was  none  to  divide 
the  public  favours  with  her,  she  carried  all  before  her  in 
such  parts  as  Almeria  in  Congreve's  Mourning  Bride,  Jane 
Shore,  Calista,  Belvedera,  and  Mrs.  Beverley  ;  and,  a  little 
later  on,  in  those  mightier  ones  of  Isabella  in  Measure  for 
Measure,  and  Constance  in  King  John.  Not  yet,  undis- 
puted queen  of  tragedy  as  she  was,  had  she  ventured  upon 
parts  so  tremendous  as  that  of  Lady  Macbeth — then  sacred 
to  the  memory  of  her  predecessor,  Mrs.  Yates,  whom,  it 
may  be  remembered,  Romney  had  already,  some  ten  years 


THE  TRAGIC  MUSE 


THE  TRAGIC  MUSE  7 

previously,  painted  as  the  Tragic  Muse.  Under  this  title, 
too,  Russell,  the  author  of  a  History  of  Modern  Europe^  had 
sung  Mrs.  Siddons  in  verse ;  and  his  panegyric  may  very 
probably  have  suggested  to  Reynolds  the  subject,  or,  at  any 
rate,  the  name  of  his  picture.  There  is  some  doubt  as  to 
the  exact  time  in  1783  when  the  great  actress  began  her 
sittings,  but,  on  the  whole,  the  most  probable  period  would 
appear  to  be  the  autumn  of  that  year.  The  history  of  the 
picture  is  given  by  Mrs.  Jameson,  on  the  authority  of  Mrs. 
Siddons  herself.  We  can  imagine  Sir  Joshua,  in  his  courtly 
fashion,  taking  the  stately  woman  by  the  hand,  and  leading 
her  to  the  sitter's  chair,  with  the  sonorous  Johnsonian  com- 
pliment :  "  Ascend  your  undisputed  throne ;  bestow  on 
me  some  idea  of  the  Tragic  Muse."  "  Upon  which,"  she 
added,  "  I  walked  up  the  steps,  and  instantly  seated  myself 
in  the  attitude  in  which  the  Tragic  Muse  now  appears." 
There  is  little  reason  to  doubt  the  authenticity  of  the  anec- 
dote, and  the  less  when  we  reflect  that  Melpomene,  some- 
what staid  and  stolid  in  private  life,  was  not  inventive 
enough  to  have  devised  or  elaborated  the  compliment  just 
quoted,  or  that  further  and  still  more  splendid  one  which  he 
laid  at  her  feet  when  he  was  putting  the  last  finishing 
touches  to  the  work.  "  I  cannot,"  he  said,  "  resist  the 
opportunity  for  going  down  to  posterity  on  the  edge  of  your 
garment."  Whereupon  he  then  and  there  painted  his  name 
in  ornate  letters,  together  with  the  date  1784,  along  the 
Muse's  skirt,  so  that  it  did  duty  as  a  decorative  adornment 
— much  as  he  had  done  in  the  case  of  The  Lady  Cockburn 
with  her  Children. 


8  THE  TRAGIC  MUSE 

With  regard  to  the  influence  that  the  beautiful  sitter  her- 
self exercised,  or  deemed  that  she  exercised  on  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  design — one  of  the  most  carefully  elaborated  of 
all  Sir  Joshua's — there  seems  to  have  been  some  uncon- 
scious exaggeration  on  her  part,  such  as  is  often  generated 
by  successive  repetitions  of  a  story  at  a  certain  distance 
of  time.  Thus,  she  said  to  Mrs.  Jameson  that  she  at  once 
seated  herself  in  the  attitude  in  which  the  Muse  now  ap- 
pears. But  she  told  Thomas  Phillips,  R.  A.,  "that  it  was 
the  production  of  pure  accident ;  Sir  Joshua  had  begun 
the  head  and  figure  in  a  different  view  j  but  while  he  was 
occupied  in  the  preparation  of  some  colour,  she  changed 
her  position  to  look  at  a  picture  hanging  on  the  wall  of  the 
room.  When  he  again  looked  at  her  and  saw  the  action 
she  had  assumed,  he  requested  her  not  to  move ;  and  thus 
arose  the  beautiful  and  expressive  figure  we  now  see  in  the 
picture."  And  again  she  told  Martin  Arthur  Shee  that  "  Sir 
Joshua  would  have  tricked  her  out  in  all  the  colours  of  the 
rainbow  had  she  not  prevented  him."  No  doubt  the 
great  tragedienne  was  unfamiliar  with  the  first  states  of  an 
oil  picture,  and  the  courtly  Sir  Joshua  may  have  allowed 
her  to  run  on  uncontradicted,  content  to  receive  her  recla- 
mations with  a  seeming  acquiescence. 

It  must  be  pointed  out,  however,  that  the  master's 
Twelfth  Discourse,  delivered  only  a  few  months  after  the 
completion  of  the  picture,  contains  in  the  following  pas- 
sage, a  striking  though  indirect  corroboration  of  Mrs.  Sid- 
dons's  statement  that  she  had  suggested  the  attitude  of  the 
Muse  : — "  And  here  I  cannot  avoid  mentioning  a  circum- 


THE  TRAGIC  MUSE  9 

stance  in  placing  the  model,  though  to  some  it  may  appear 
trifling.  It  is  better  to  possess  the  model  with  the  attitude 
you  require,  than  to  place  him  with  your  own  hands :  by 
this  means  it  often  happens  that  the  model  puts  himself  in 
an  action  superior  to  your  own  imagination.  It  is  a  great 
matter  to  be  in  the  way  of  accident,  and  to  be  watchful 
and  ready  to  take  advantage  of  it :  besides,  when  you  fix 
the  position  of  a  model  there  is  danger  of  putting  him  in 
an  attitude  into  which  no  man  would  naturally  fall." 

It  may  be  alleged  that  Mrs.  Siddons's  story  in  its  entirety 
cannot  altogether  be  reconciled  with  the  undoubted  fact  that 
the  general  conception  of  the  Tragic  Muse  is  coloured  with 
a  strong  reminiscence  of  Michelangelo's  Isaiah,  in  the  ceil- 
ing of  the  Sixtine  Chapel — a  fact  the  less  difficult  to  accept 
when  it  is  remembered  how  Sir  Joshua  had  saturated  him- 
self with  the  master  in  the  contemplation  of  the  frescoes  in 
the  Cappella  Sistina,  and  had  throughout  his  career  main- 
tained his  enthusiasm  for  him  at  its  original  high  level. 

Still,  the  two  versions  of  the  genesis  of  the  picture  are  by 
no  means  radically  irreconcilable. 

It  is  not  in  the  least  likely  that  so  great  an  artist,  and  one 
so  various  in  portraiture  as  Sir  Joshua,  would  have  ham- 
pered himself,  and  handicapped  his  sitter,  by  a  premed- 
itated adherence  to  all  the  lines  of  a  figure  of  which  the 
guiding  motive  was  one  essentially  different  from  that  of 
his  idealized  portrait.  There  is  little  doubt  that  he  had 
generally  in  view  Buonarroti's  great  invention ;  yet,  to  ob- 
tain a  pose  correct  and  natural  in  all  particulars,  and,  above 
all,  to  infuse  true  significance  and  true  dramatic  charac- 


10  THE  TRAGIC  MUSE 

terization  into  the  outlines  of  the  composition  as  conceived 
by  him,  it  is  easy  to  believe  that  he  may  have  relied  to  a 
great  extent,  on  the  heroic  instincts  of  the  greatest  tragic 
actress  of  her  time.  He  may — as  we  know  that  he  did  in 
many  cases — have  even  taken  inspiration  from  her  changes 
of  posture,  and  revised  his  conception  accordingly. 

A  detailed  description  of  the  composition  is  rendered  un- 
necessary by  the  reproduction  here  given.  It  is  in  fine  pres- 
ervation, the  sombre  magnificence  of  the  colouring  being 
much  less  due  to  darkening  in  this  instance  than  to  pre- 
meditation on  the  part  of  the  painter.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  unity  of  tone  obtained  by  the  deep  purple 
and  the  tawny  brownish-yellow  of  Melpomene's  robes  gives 
a  greater  ideality,  a  more  unbroken  repose  to  the  general 
aspect  of  the  work  than  could  have  been  obtained  by  a 
higher  key,  a  more  varied  splendour  in  the  hues  of  the 
draperies.  For  once  Sir  Joshua  attains  to  his  ideal  and 
achieves  what  all  through  his  life  he  has  sighed  for  and 
written  about — high,  or  shall  we  not  rather  say  great,  art. 
As  great  art,  and  to  say  the  least,  on  a  level  with  the  work 
now  discussed,  must  rank  several  of  the  finest  male  portraits. 
But  those  were  great  in  virtue  of  a  certain  heroic  realism, 
of  a  certain  informing  enthusiasm,  while  greatness  is  here 
attained  in  the  more  accepted  fashion,  by  splendid  dignity 
of  conception,  by  majesty  and  rhythmical  grace  of  out- 
ward aspect,  by  impressiveness  and  significance  of  colour- 
ing. 

The  least  touch  of  bathos  would  have  brought  the  picture 
down  from  its  high  level,  and  placed  it  on  that  of  the  Gar- 


THE  TRAGIC  MUSE  II 

rick  between  Tragedy  and  Comedy  and  the  numerous  portraits 
of  some  one  irrelevantly  masquerading  as  some  one  else, 
which  cannot  be  unreservedly  accepted,  even  by  the 
master's  most  fervent  admirers.  But  even  the  attendant 
figures  variously  described  as  "  Pity  and  Terror,"  "  Pity 
and  Remorse,"  and  with  more  probability  as  "  Crime  and 
Remorse,"  are  sufficiently  impressive,  especially  the  one 
which  the  master  studied  from  his  own  features.  The 
figure  of  Mrs.  Siddons  herself  is  unique  in  the  life-work  of 
the  master,  as  combining  a  more  portrait-like  fidelity  than 
Reynolds  often  achieved  in  female  portraiture  with  a  gen- 
uinely tragic  ideality  of  mien  and  gesture,  due,  it  must  be 
owned,  as  much  to  the  natural  personality  of  the  sitter  as 
to  the  conceiving  power  of  the  artist. 

The  original  work  was  bought  by  the  noted  amateur, 
M.  de  Calonne,  for  the  then  very  considerable  sum  of  800 
guineas,  and,  after  some  intermediate  sales,  was  finally  ac- 
quired by  the  first  Marquis  of  Westminster  for  1,760 
guineas.  It  remains  one  of  the  chief  ornaments  of  the 
Duke  of  Westminster's  rich  collection,  and  has  by  him 
been  lent  on  several  occasions  to  public  exhibitions — to  the 
Old  Masters  in  1870;  then  for  a  considerable  space  of 
time  to  the  South  Kensington  Museum ;  then  to  the 
Reynolds  Exhibition  at  the  Grosvenor  Gallery ;  and  lastly 
to  the  Guelph  Exhibition.  The  inferior  replica  at  the 
Dulwich  Gallery  was  painted  by  Score,  one  of  Sir  Joshua's 
assistants,  in  1789,  and  sold  to  M.  Desenfans  for  700 
guineas ;  but,  for  all  its  inferiority,  it  had,  as  Sir  Joshua's 
own  note  and  the  price  show,  the  imprimatur  of  the 


12  THE  TRAGIC  MUSE 

Reynolds  studio.  The  best  replica  would  appear  to  be 
that  at  Langley  Park,  Stowe,  given  by  Sir  Joshua  to 
Mr.  Harvey,  in  exchange  for  a  boar-hunt  by  Snyders 
which  the  painter  much  admired.  Another  repetition, 
of  the  upper  part  of  the  figure  only,  is,  or  was,  in  the 
possession  of  Mrs.  Combe  of  Edinburgh ;  and  yet  another 
one — of  the  complete  picture — in  the  gallery  of  Lord 
Normanton. 

As  by  Sir  Joshua  was  exhibited  at  the  Guelph  Exhibition 
an  imposing  full-length,  belonging  to  the  Earl  of  Warwick, 
showing  Mrs.  Siddons  in  a  black  satin  gown,  with  a  white 
scarf  wrapped  turban-wise  round  her  head,  holding  in  one 
hand  a  mask,  in  the  other  a  dagger.  This,  however,  has, 
on  the  high  authority  of  Mr.  George  Scharf,  the  Director 
of  the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  been  restored  to  Sir 
William  Beechy. 

It  was  in  1784  that  Gainsborough  painted  his  famous 
Mrs.  Siddons^  en  toilette  de  i)ille,  now  in  the  National  Gal- 
lery, and,  though  the  conditions  of  the  two  pictures  are  as 
absolutely  different  as  they  could  possibly  be,  the  same 
serious  and  a  little  ponderous  personality  makes  itself  felt, 
even  as  interpreted  by  Gainsborough's  sprightly  brush. 

No  better  description  has  been  left  us  of  the  Tragic 
Muse,  as  she  appeared  in  private  life,  preserving,  in  a 
lower,  quieter  key,  all  the  idiosyncrasies  of  her  stage  in- 
dividuality, than  that  one  of  Miss  Burney's  which  so  per- 
fectly comments  and  explains  the  painted  portraits  as  to  de- 
serve quotation  in  its  entirety  : — 

"  I  found  her,  the  Heroine  of  a  Tragedy — sublime,  ele- 


THE  TRAGIC  MUSE  13 

vated,  and  solemn.  In  face  and  person,  truly  noble  and 
commanding;  in  manners,  quiet  and  stiff;  in  voice,  deep 
and  dragging;  and  in  conversation,  formal,  sententious, 
calm,  and  dry.  I  expected  her  to  have  been  all  that  is 
interesting;  the  delicacy  and  sweetness  with  which  she 
seizes  every  opportunity  to  strike  and  to  captivate  upon  the 
stage  had  persuaded  me  that  her  mind  was  formed  with 
that  peculiar  susceptibility  which,  in  different  modes,  must 
give  equal  powers  to  attract  and  to  delight  in  common  life. 
But  I  was  very  much  mistaken.  As  a  stranger,  I  must 
have  admired  her  noble  appearance  and  beautiful  counte- 
nance, and  have  regretted  that  nothing  in  her  conversation 
kept  pace  with  her  promise ;  and  as  a  celebrated  actress  I 
had  still  only  to  do  the  same.  Whether  fame  and  success 
have  spoiled  her,  or  whether  she  only  possesses  the  skill  of 
representing  and  embellishing  materials  with  which  she  is 
furnished  by  others,  I  know  not ;  but  still  I  remain  disap- 
pointed." 


PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN 

(Raphael) 

F.  A.  GRUYER 

Portrait  of  a  Young  Man  carries  us  to  the 
Rome  of  Julius  II.,  about  the  year  1510,  at  the  mo- 
ment when  Raphael,  in  the  full  ebullition  of  his  genius  is 
about  to  take  possession  of  the  Vatican.  This  was  per- 
haps the  most  fortunate  moment  of  his  life.  He  had  that 
view  of  a  happy  and  productive  life  to  which  nothing  is 
any  longer  refused.  For  him  the  years  were  to  succeed 
one  another  ever  fuller  of  activity  and  ever  fuller  of  glory, 
full  of  works  and  full  of  happiness.  In  thirty  months  he 
was  to  compose  and  paint  the  Dispute  of  the  Holy  Sacra- 
ment, the  School  of  Athens,  the  Parnassus,  the  'Jurisprudence, 
the  Pandectes,  the  Decretals,  the  allegorical  figures  of  the 
vault,  all  the  complementary  figures  of  that  admirable 
decoration,  and  he  even  found  time  to  paint  another  por- 
trait which  alone  would  suffice  to  place  him  in  the  first 
rank  of  the  great  masters.  This  portrait  represents  a  young 
man,  almost  a  youth,  handsome  of  countenance,  of  natural 
charm  and  grace,  and  richly  exhaling  the  springtide  perfume 
of  life.  What  is  his  age  ?  About  sixteen  years.  What 
was  his  name  ?  We  do  not  know.  What  was  his  condi- 
tion of  life  ?  That  is  also  unknown.  He  leans  his  elbow 
familiarly  upon  a  stone  balustrade,  his  head  supported  by 
his  right  hand,  his  left  arm  lies  horizontally  along  the  sup- 


PORTRAIT  OF    A  YOUNG  MAN 


PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN  15 

porting  bar.  His  long  hair,  of  a  bright  blonde,  is  covered 
with  a  black  baretta,  and  is  parted  in  the  middle,  falling 
down  over  his  cheeks  and  flowing  over  his  shoulders.  One 
of  his  locks,  raised  by  the  hand  that  supports  the  head,  covers 
the  right  cheek  and  caresses  it,  giving  him  a  somewhat  mis- 
chievous expression.  The  broad  open  brow  is  of  medium 
height.  The  eyes  of  a  bluish  gray,  look  towards  the  left 
with  a  bright  glance.  The  nose  is  delicately  formed.  The 
lines  of  the  mouth  reveal  amiability  and  humour.  The 
chin  is  finely  accentuated.  The  cheeks  are  in  the  full 
blossoming  of  youth.  As  for  the  costume,  it  is  summarily 
dismissed :  a  white  shirt  leaving  the  throat  bare  so  as  to 
show  it  in  all  its  lightness ;  a  blackish  blue  tunic,  the  right 
sleeve  only  of  which  is  visible;  and  a  cloak  of  sombre 
green  negligently  thrown  over  the  left  shoulder.  Finally, 
the  right  hand  is  merely  indicated.  Everything  shows  to 
what  a  degree  this  painting  was  improvised ;  but  this  does 
not  interfere  with  its  enchantment.  The  shade  and  chiaros- 
curo are  distributed  with  an  art  that  is  so  much  the  greater 
on  account  of  its  dissimulation.  There  can  be  nothing  in 
which  we  feel  less  effort,  nothing  can  be  less  natural  nor 
more  spontaneous ;  nothing  can  seem  less  calculated  nor 
reaching  after  effect ;  nevertheless,  everything  here  is  or- 
dered by  a  master  as  sure  of  his  hand  as  of  his  thought. 
This  handsome  face,  set  between  the  black  baretta  and  the 
dark  tones  of  his  vestments,  is  like  the  brightness  of  a 
beautiful  day.  It  is  youth  personified,  without  make-up  or 
adjustment,  in  all  the  charm  of  its  reality  and  all  the  poetry 
of  its  dreaming.  Moreover,  it  would  be  vain  to  analyze 


1 6  PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN 

such  a  portrait,  or  to  seek  whence  arises  its  enchantment. 
We  cannot  tell.  The  poet  says  :  "  Ask  of  the  nightin- 
gale its  secret  for  making  itself  beloved." 

This  painting  came  to  us  from  the  gallery  of  Louis  XIV.; 
and  Bailly  in  his  inventory  thus  describes  it  in  1709  :  "Pic- 
ture attributed  to  Raphael  representing  his  own  portrait." 
At  that  period,  therefore,  people  regarded  this  as  the  por- 
trait of  Raphael  at  the  age  of  fifteen  or  sixteen,  without 
asking  themselves  if  it  were  possible  whether  so  strong  a 
work  could  be  produced  by  a  painter  as  young  as  that. 
Twenty  years  later,  Mariette,  with  greater  insight,  con- 
sidered this  impossibility.  He  says:  "This  portrait  is 
worthy  of  deep  consideration  on  account  of  its  beautiful 
brush-work  and  its  masterly  mingling  of  colours.  The 
head  looks  alive  ;  the  character  of  the  design  is  great  and 
finely  felt  with  much  «firmness  and  precision.  One  would 
say  that  Raphael  painted  it  rapidly  at  the  first  attempt.  On 
that  account,  it  is  more  piquant  than  any  other  that  we 
possess  by  this  great  man.  Some  people  regard  it  as  the 
portrait  of  this  painter  f  but  it  is  hard  for  us  to  persuade 
ourselves  that  at  so  tender  an  age  as  that  of  the  youth 
represented  in  this  picture,  Raphael  had  so  far  departed 
from  his  first  manner  as  appears  in  the  picture  of  which 
we  are  speaking."  In  1752,  Lepicie,  taking  Mariette's 
opinion  into  account,  wrote  below  this  painting  simply  : 
"  Portrait  of  a  Young  Man."  This  however  did  not  pre- 
vent Emeric  David,  whose  opinion  was  authoritative  fifty 
years  ago,  from  holding  to  Bailly's  version.  It  was  easy 
however  to  make  sure  of  two  things :  first,  that  there  is 


PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN  17 

not  the  least  resemblance  between  the  authentic  portraits 
of  Raphael  and  this  "  Portrait  of  a  Young  Man  " ;  and 
next,  that  Raphael  at  sixteen  years  of  age  was  painting 
after  Perugino  under  the  very  eyes  of  Perugino,  keeping 
with  docility  within  the  shadow  of  his  master ;  and  that, 
even  at  twenty  years  of  age,  it  was  still  Perugino  whom 
he  was  striving  to  copy,  witness  the  Sposalizio^  and  the 
Christ  in  the  Garden  of  Olives.  In  1499,  a  portrait  such 
as  the  Portrait  of  a  Young  Man  would  have  been  considered 
an  act  of  rebellion  in  the  School  of  Perugi.  Moreover, 
this  portrait  exhibits  all  the  qualities  of  a  past  master  in 
painting.  If  there  are  one  or  two  things  in  it  that  are  not 
quite  correct,  they  are  matters  not  of  inexperience  but  of 
improvisation.  In  order  to  paint  a  picture  of  such  appar- 
ent carelessness,  to  produce  such  a  work  with  such  lavish- 
ness,  to  adorn  what  is  familiar  with  such  delicacies,  a  man 
must  have  long  submitted  to  the  respect  for  style,  to  the 
devotion  to  form  and  reason.  As  Boileau  says,  he  must 
have  learned  "  with  difficulty  to  make  easy  verses."  Never- 
theless the  error  endorsed  by  Emeric  David  persisted,  and 
Forster,  when  he  engraved  this  portrait  in  1843,  wrote 
under  his  engraving  :  Raphael  Sanzio  at  fifteen  years  of  age. 
As  a  reaction  from  this  point  of  view,  people  now  want 
to  refer  this  Portrait  of  a  Young  Man  to  the  closing  years 
of  Raphael's  life.  "  This  picture  must  have  been  painted 
between  1515  and  1520,"  says  M.  Villot ;  and  M.  Both  de 
Tauzia  repeats  the  same  date.  In  our  opinion,  this  is  an- 
other error.  After  having  gone  too  high  up,  people  come 
too  low  down.  Why  not  stop  half  way,  between  1509  and 


1 8  PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN 

1511  ?  This  portrait,  although  of  masterly  execution,  does 
not  show  the  character  of  Raphael's  last  productions.  On 
the  contrary,  everything  in  it  recalls  the  first  works  that  he 
painted  in  Rome.  If  we  compare  this  Portrait  of  a  Young 
Man  with  the  frescoes  of  the  Segnatura^  we  shall  see  that 
they  are  painted  in  the  same  manner,  and  have  the  same 
youth,  the  same  freshness  and  the  same  style  of  beauty, — 
in  a  word,  that  they  belong  to  the  same  date.  The  draw- 
ing throughout  has  the  same  incomparable  grace,  and  the 
colour,  in  spite  of  the  difference  in  the  material  processes, 
produces  the  same  impression.  Has  not  the  colouring  of 
the  Portrait  of  a  Young  Man,  blonde,  fluid  and  diaphanous, 
something  of  the  limpidity  of  fresco,  and  particularly  of  the 
frescoes  of  the  first  of  the  Vatican  Chambers?  More- 
over can  we  not  see  remarkable  analogies  between  this 
charming  countenance  and  the  no  less  charming  faces  of  the 
disciples  gathered  around  Archimedes  in  the  School  of 
Athens?  Archimedes  being  no  other  than  Bramante,  is  it 
not  probable  that  his  disciples  are  also  some  of  the  painter's 
contemporaries  ?  Before  executing  his  fresco,  might  not 
Raphael  have  painted  rapidly  and  in  the  sense  of  studies 
some  portraits  among  which  was  this  Portrait  of  a  Young 
Man  ?  (It  was  thus  that  he  painted  the  portrait  of  the 
Duke  of  Urbino  which  also  figures  in  the  School  of  Athens.) 
Are  not  the  enthusiasm  of  the  idea,  the  spontaneity  of  the 
execution  and  the  inspired  spirit  of  the  artist  in  the  presence 
of  the  living  model  so  many  proofs  in  favour  of  this 
hypothesis  ?  We  therefore  think  that  this  portrait  was 
painted  between  the  years  1509  and  1511.  Place  it  in  the 


PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN  1 9 

chamber  of  the  Segnatura  and  it  is  at  home,  it  seems  to  be 
with  its  own  family.  Place  it  aside  in  the  Heliodorus  room 
which  was  painted  from  1512  to  1514,  and  it  already  looks 
almost  exiled.  Why?  Because  from  1512  on,  Raphael 
was  influenced  by  the  paintings  of  Giorgione  and  Sebastiano 
del  Piombo,  and  he  preserved  in  his  own  works  something 
of  the  impression  caused  by  those  warm  colourists.  How- 
ever this  may  be,  let  us  hail  a  masterpiece  in  this  portrait. 


SOPHIE  ARNOULD 

(Greuze) 

M.  H.  SPIELMANN 

THE  extraordinary  popularity  of  Greuze  is  based,  not 
upon  the  excellence  of  his  painting,  but  upon  his 
pretty  faces ;  for  not  only  are  his  best  pictures  the  least 
liked  by  the  public,  but  among  those  which  are  most  en- 
joyed are  the  most  insincere,  the  most  affected,  and,  in  in- 
tention, the  most  u  suggestive."  Some  of  his  best  work  is 
naturally  that  which  makes  the  least  appeal  to  the  senti- 
mentality of  the  spectator :  that  is  to  say,  he  is  strongest  in 
genuine  portraiture. 

In  the  portrait  of  Mile.  Sophie  Arnould,  there  is,  no  doubt, 
a  touch  of  the  poseuse — there  is  the  affectation  of  the  pretty 
woman,  who,  with  all  her  consummate  wit  and  self- 
command,  could  not  quite  lose  her  self-consciousness  when 
standing  before  the  easel  of  the  painter.  Greuze  shows 
her  for  what  she  is.  The  jaunty  pose  of  the  hat,  the  quiet 
confidence  of  the  sitter,  the  grace,  half-studied,  half-natural, 
the  lack  of  " that"  as  the  French  say,  which  gives  the  per- 
fect grace  of  the  well-bred  woman,  all  proclaim  the  attributes 
of  the  actress  who  sprang  into  the  dazzling  light  of  the 
joyous  world  in  Eighteenth  Century  France,  and  fizzled 
out  at  the  end  of  it. 

That  Sophie  Arnould  was  a  great  artist  none  will  deny. 
Garrick  himself  showered  his  approval  upon  her,  and  yet  it 


SOPHIE    ARNOULD 


SOPHIE  ARNOULD  21 

was  not  as  an  actress  merely  that  she  gained  universal 
celebrity,  but  as  an  opera-singer.  She  was  singularly  gifted 
by  nature,  graceful  in  presence,  perfect  in  figure,  admirable 
alike  as  actress  and  singer ;  she  dominated  her  world  of  art 
for  heaven  knows  how  many  years,  and  Carlyle  somewhere 
says  that  she  was  the  greatest  lyric  and  dramatic  artist  of 
her  day:  that  is  to  say,  for  twenty  years  from  1757.  As 
Thelaire  in  Castor  and  Pollux,  as  Ephise  in  Dardanus,  as 
Iphigenie  in  Aulide,  and  in  a  score  of  other  parts,  Sophie 
enchanted  all  Paris  year  after  year,  and  Dorat  celebrated 
her  in  his  poem  La  Declamation,  and  she  triumphed  in  the 
world,  on  the  stage,  and  at  Court. 

Mile.  Arnould,  herself,  held  not  the  public  in  such  high 
esteem  as  that  with  which  they  honoured  her.  She  had 
little  belief  in  either  their  taste  or  their  sense.  She  knew 
that,  as  to-day,  not  the  love  of  art,  but  of  vogue,  attracts 
the  public  to  the  playhouse,  and  cuttingly  remarked : 
"  The  best  way  to  support  the  opera  is  to  lengthen  the 
ballets  and  shorten  the  skirts."  Indeed,  of  all  her  gifts 
that  of  extempore  wit  was,  perhaps,  the  most  remarkable 
for  she  would  say  the  cleverest  and  bitterest  things  without 
giving  offence.  There,  indeed,  is  the  wonder  of  wonders — 
a  pretty  woman,  an^actress,  "  the  idol  of  the  opera-goers," 
and  queen  of  the  stage,  witty,  cynical,  even  biting — and  yet 
without  an  enemy  !  And  when  she  retired,  it  was  amidst  a 
chorus  of  praises  and  regrets  among  which  was  heard  no 
discordant  cry.  Perhaps  she  was  so  successful  in  flavouring 
her  wormwood  with  sugar  that  the  taste  of  bitterness  was 
unnoticed.  Thus,  when  a  pretty  but  very  stupid  woman  was 


22  SOPHIE  ARNOULD 

complaining  that  she  was  pestered  with  the  attentions  of  men 
whom  she  could  not  escape,  Sophie  sweetly  replied :  "  But, 
surely,  my  dear,  you  need  but  speak  to  them  !  "  It  was  so 
natural.  And  again,  on  being  told  that  a  certain  popular 
singer,  now  grown  old  and  husky  and  raucous,  had  been 
received  with  hisses,  she  said  :  "  But  she  possesses  the  voice 
of  the  people  !  "  Some  of  the  inventions  of  her  subtle  wit 
are  used  to  this  day  in  the  press  of  Paris. 

Such  was  the  woman  whom  Greuze  has  painted  here, 
making  as  a  painter  should,  the  best  of  a  not  very  beautiful 
face — for  her  large  mouth,  her  bad  teeth,  her  dark  skin  have 
been  commented  on  by  contemporaries.  But  these,  per- 
haps, are  not  free  from  suspicion  of  entertaining  ill-will 
towards  her.  Her  life  is  full  of  interest,  a  curious  com- 
mentary on  French  Society  of  the  Eighteenth  Century. 
She  has  been  fortunate  in  her  biographers,  the  de  Gon- 
courts  and  Mr.  Douglas :  but  above  all  she  has  been 
fortunate  in  her  painter,  Greuze,  whose  picture,  more  fa- 
vourably than  the  portraits  of  others,  will  keep  alive  for  all 
time  the  memory  of  her  attractive  personality. 


DON  BALTHAZAR  CARLOS 

(Velasquez) 

SIR  WALTER  ARMSTRONG 

THE  equestrian  portrait  of  the  young  prince  is  one  of  the 
finest  things  painted  by  the  master  for  Buen  Retiro. 
The  boy  rides  an  Andalusian  pony  and  flourishes  his  baton 
with  an  engaging  mimicry  of  his  father.  In  decorative 
brilliancy  of  colour  Velasquez  never  excelled  this  picture. 
A  positively  dazzling  effect  is  produced  by  the  richly- 
dressed  little  horseman,  in  his  green  velvet  doublet,  white 
sleeves,  and  red  scarf  against  the  iridescent  landscape. 
Don  Balthazar  is  said  to  have  delighted  his  father  by  his 
skill  and  courage  in  the  riding-school ;  the  King  makes 
frequent  allusions  to  his  progress  in  letters  to  Don  Fer- 
nando, who  encouraged  his  little  nephew  by  presents  of 
armour,  dogs,  and  a  pony  described  as  a  "  little  devil,"  but 
warranted  to  go  like  "  a  little  dog  "  if  treated  to  some  half- 
dozen  lashes  before  being  mounted.  The  prince's  horse- 
manship was  probably  acquired  under  the  direction  of  Oli- 
vares,  one  of  the  best  horsemen  in  Spain,  who  appears  in 
one  of  two  sketches  ascribed  to  Velasquez,  showing  the 
child  preparing  for  a  lesson  with  the  lance.  Both  are  in 
English  collections.  The  Duke  of  Westminster  owns  that 
with  Olivares  in  the  arena,  and  the  king  and  queen  look- 
ing on  from  the  balcony  of  the  building  which  is  now  the 


24  DON  BALTHAZAR  CARLOS 

Royal  Armoury  j  the  other,  a  composition  with  more  fig- 
ures, is  at  Hertford  House. 

Never  in  his  whole  career  did  Velasquez  equal  this  pic- 
ture in  spontaneous  vitality  or  in  splendour  of  colour.  The 
design,  too,  has  a  freshness  and  felicity  which  we  miss  from 
the  Olivares,  and,  to  a  less  extent,  from  the  Philip  and  Isa- 
bella. Intellectually  the  motive  is  absolutely  simple.  The 
boy  gallops  past  at  an  angle  which  brings  him  into  the  hap- 
piest proportion  with  his  mount.  His  attitude  is  the  natural 
one  for  a  pupil  of  Philip  and  Olivares,  two  of  the  best 
horsemen  in  Europe ;  his  look  and  gesture  express  just  the 
degree  of  pride,  delight  and  desire  for  approval  which  charm 
in  a  child.  Through  all  this  Velasquez  has  worked  for 
simplicity.  He  has  been  governed  by  the  sincere  desire  to 
paint  the  boy  as  he  was,  with  no  parade  or  affectation. 
That  done,  he  has  turned  his  attention  to  aesthetic  effect. 
The  mane  and  tail  of  the  Andalusian  pony,  the  boy's  rich 
costume  and  his  flying  scarf,  and  the  splendid  browns,  blues 
and  greens  of  the  landscape  background  make  up  a  decora- 
tive whole  as  rich  and  musical  as  any  Titian.  Not  that  it 
is  in  the  least  Titianesque.  Its  colour  is,  in  a  way,  a  better 
answer  to  the  famous  dictum  of  Sir  Joshua  than  the  Blue 
Boy  itself,  for  although  the  tints  are  all  warm  and  trans- 
parent, the  general  effect  produced  is  cool  and  blue.  Ve- 
lasquez was  afterwards  to  paint  many  pictures  in  which  the 
more  subtle  resources  of  his  art  were  to  be  more  fully  dis- 
played than  here,  but  he  was  never  again  to  equal  this  Don 
Balthazar  Carlos  in  the  felicity  with  which  directness  and 
truth  are  clothed  in  the  splendours  of  decorative  colour,  and 


DON  BALTHAZAR    CARLOS 


DON  BALTHAZAR  CARLOS  25 

that  without  drawing  upon  the  more  sonorous  notes 
of  the  palette.  Only  once  in  after-life  does  he  seem 
to  have  let  himself  go  in  the  matter  of  colour  and  to 
have  tried  what  he  could  do,  so  to  speak,  with  the 
trumpet.  The  extraordinary  portrait  of  the  Infante 
Margarita  in  rose-colour  against  red  was  the  result,  but 
wonderful  as  it  is,  it  leaves  us  cold  beside  the  delicious 
tones,  like  those  of  a  silver  flute,  of  this  Balthazar 
Carlos. 

Don  Balthazar  was  born  during  the  absence  of  Velasquez 
in  Rome.  The  master  painted  him  first  at  the  age  of  two, 
as  we  learn  from  a  reference  to  such  a  portrait  in  a  docu- 
ment of  1634.  The  picture  at  Castle  Howard  (once 
ascribed  to  Correggio  !)  shows  him  at  about  the  same  age, 
or  a  little  older.  He  stands  somewhat  insecurely,  support- 
ing himself  by  means  of  a  baton,  while  a  dwarf  rather  more 
in  the  foreground  seems  to  encourage  him  to  walk  by  hold- 
ing out  a  silver  rattle  and  an  apple.  This  is,  perhaps,  the 
earliest  of  a  fine  series  of  portraits  which  chronicle  the 
various  stages  of  the  prince's  short  career.  Several  were 
sent  to  foreign  courts  as  preliminaries  to  demand  for  the 
hand  of  this  or  that  princess,  the  prince's  marriage  having 
been  a  subject  of  anxious  consideration  almost  from  his 
birth.  A  portrait  in  Buckingham  Palace,  representing  him 
in  armour,  with  golden  spurs,  lace  collar  and  crimson  scarf, 
is  supposed  to  be  the  picture  spoken  of  by  the  Tuscan  en- 
voy in  1639.  "A  portrait  of  the  Crown  Prince  has  been 
sent  to  England,  as  if  His  Highnesses  marriage  with  that 
Princess  were  close  at  hand."  Such  a  picture  figures  in  the 


26  DON  BALTHAZAR  CARLOS 

catalogue  of  one  of  the  sales  under  the  Commonwealth  as 
"  The  Prince  of  Spain." 

A  more  important  example  of  this  class  is  a  full-length 
at  Vienna  in  a  black  velvet  dress  embroidered  with  silver, 
sent  to  the  Austrian  Court  when  a  betrothal  with  the  Em- 
peror Ferdinand's  daughter,  Mariana,  was  under  discussion. 
In  1645,  tne  Infante  went  with  his  father  to  receive  the 
homage  of  the  provinces  of  Aragon  and  Navarre,  an  event 
commemorated  by  Juan  Bautista  del  Mazo-Martinez, 
commonly  known  as  Mazo,  in  his  fine  View  of  Saragassa 
(No.  788  in  the  Prado) ;  the  figures  in  which,  representing 
the  royal  party,  have  been  ascribed  to  Velasquez  himself. 
In  June  of  the  following  year,  the  prince's  betrothal  10 
Mariana  was  officially  announced,  and  shortly  afterwards  he 
accompanied  his  father  to  the  seat  of  war  in  Aragon,  where 
his  beauty  and  spirit  excited  great  enthusiasm.  A  chill 
taken  at  Saragossa  cut  short  the  young  life  on  which  such 
high  hopes  had  been  built,  on  October  6,  1646.  With 
characteristic  self-control,  Philip  to  whom  policy  and  affec- 
tion alike  made  this  loss  the  most  cruel  of  disasters,  an- 
nounced the  boy's  death  to  the  Marquis  of  Legafies  in  the 
following  letter  : —  , 

"  Marquis We  must  all  of  us  yield  to  God's  will, 

and  I  more  than  others.  It  has  pleased  Him  to  take  my 
son  from  me  about  an  hour  ago.  Mine  is  such  grief  as 
you  can  conceive  at  such  a  loss,  but  also  full  of  resignation 
in  the  hand  of  God,  and  courage  and  resolution  to  pro- 
vide for  the  defence  of  my  lands,  for  they  also  are  my 
children.  .  .  .  And  so  I  beseech  you  not  to  relax 


DON  BALTHAZAR  CARLOS  27 

in   the   operations   of  this   campaign   until   Lerida   is  re- 
lieved." 

The  latest  portrait  of  the  prince  ascribed  to  Velasquez 
is  probably  the  full-length  numbered  1,083  *n  tne  Prado, 
representing  him  at  about  the  age  of  fifteen,  in  a  black 
court  suit. 


MRS.  SHERIDAN 

( Gainsborough) 

LORD  RONALD  GOWER 

IT  is  inevitable  to  compare  Gainsborough  with  Reynolds, 
but  the  comparison  is  unprofitable,  since,  although  both 
painted  the  portraits  of  the  same  generation,  they  were 
distinctly  different  in  style  and  feeling.  When  compared 
with  the  output  of  Reynolds,  who  for  some  years  painted 
over  a  hundred  portraits  a  year,  Gainsborough's  total  of  not 
many  over  three  hundred  seems  small.  But  whilst  Reyn- 
olds had  many  pupils  and  assistants,  Gainsborough  had  no 
assistants,  and  only  a  very  few  pupils.  At  no  period  of  his 
life  did  Gainsborough  emulate  the  industry  which  enabled 
the  President  to  create  a  world  of  portraits.  Gainsborough 
also  lacked  Reynolds's  confidence  of  touch,  his  psycholog- 
ical grip  and  marvellous  variety.  Sir  Joshua's  portraits  of 
Lord  Heathfield,  of  Laurence  Sterne,  and  of  Mrs.  Siddons 
as  the  Muse  of  Tragedy,  are  the  very  greatest  portraits  any 
English  painter  has  created;  unapproachable  in  dignity, 
intellect  and  force.  But  in  delineating  the  grace  and 
sweetness  of  womanhood  Gainsborough  claims  an  equal 
place  with  his  great  rival,  and  as  a  painter  of  landscape 
he  stands  on  a  far  higher  level. 

It  is  to  Gainsborough's  credit  that  he  never  attempted  the 
so-called  u  grand  style "  in  painting  as  did  Romney  with 
such  doubtful  success ;  in  that  province  Reynolds  holds  the 


MRS.   SHERIDAN  AND  MRS.   TICKELL 


MRS.    SHERIDAN  29 

highest  rank  of  the  artists  of  his  day.  Gainsborough  in 
some  respects  was  like  a  child ;  and  this  gives  his  character 
a  certain  attraction.  He  probably  never  opened  a  book  for 
the  sake  of  study  or  information,  I  doubt  whether  he  ever 
read  a  play  of  Shakespeare's,  or  a  dozen  lines  of  Milton. 
When  not  at  work  he  would  pass  hours  with  his  friends, 
playing  some  musical  instrument  or  listening  to  their  per- 
formances. A  man  is  judged  by  his  friends,  and  whilst 
Reynolds  loved  to  be  in  the  society  of  Burke  or  Johnson, 
Gainsborough  liked  those  better  who  could  play  upon  the 
fiddle  or  the  flute ;  to  hear  music  pleased  him  more  than  to 
hear  great  minds  discuss  great  subjects. 

It  has  been  truly  said  by  the  German  art  critic,  Richard 
Muther,  that,  what  with  Reynolds  was  sought  out  and  un- 
derstood, was  felt  by  Gainsborough ;  whence  the  former  is 
always  good  and  correct,  where  Gainsborough  is  unfortu- 
nate and  often  faulty,  but  in  his  best  pictures  with  a  charm 
to  which  those  of  the  President  of  the  Academy  never 
attained  .  .  .  but  what  distinguishes  him  from  Reyn- 
olds, and  gives  him  a  character  of  greater  originality,  is 
just  his  naive  independence  of  the  ancients,  to  which  he 
was  led  by  the  difference  in  his  method  of  study. 

During  the  fourteen  years  Gainsborough  had  passed  at 
Bath,  he  had  become  known  throughout  England  as  one 
of  the  greatest  artists  of  the  day  ;  when  he  had  arrived 
there  his  name  had  not  been  heard  outside  his  native  coun- 
try. His  portraits  were  now  as  eagerly  awaited  on  the 
walls  of  the  Academy  as  those  of  the  President,  and  to- 
gether with  his  beautiful  landscapes  always  called  forth  the 


30  MRS.    SHERIDAN 

keenest  interest  and  admiration,  so  that  he  was  sure  of  a 
warm  welcome  in  London,  and  a  position  in  the  world  of 
art  only  second  to  that  of  Sir  Joshua. 

But  before  we  take  leave  of  our  painter  at  Bath,  there 
are  some  of  the  portraits  he  painted  there  which  must  not 
be  overlooked.  Among  the  many  beautiful  women  he 
painted  there  was  not  one  more  refined,  more  purely 
featured  than  Elizabeth  Linley,  the  eldest  daughter  of  the 
musician,  Thomas  Linley,  born  in  1754  at  Bath.  Gains- 
borough must  have  often  seen  her  as  a  child  of  nine  stand- 
ing with  her  little  brother  at  the  entrance  to  the  Pump 
Room  selling  tickets  for  her  father's  benefit  concerts ;  and 
later  also,  when  she  had  become  the  acknowledged  beauty 
of  the  town  — "  The  Fair  Maid  of  Bath,"  as  she  was 
called,  and  from  whom  Foote  took  the  title  of  one  of  his 
plays,  The  Maid  of  Bath — surrounded  by  admirers  and 
courted  by  the  rich  and  titled.  The  old  miser,  Walter 
Long,  offered  to  lay  his  thousands  at  her  feet,  regardless  of 
the  expense  of  a  prospective  wedding ;  when  she  sang  at 
Oxford  the  whole  University  went  wild  over  her,  and  later 
when  she  sang  in  one  of  Handel's  oratorios  at  Covent 
Garden  in  the  Lent  of  1773,  even  that  most  virtuous  of 
sovereigns,  George  the  Third,  is  said  to  have  publicly  ex- 
pressed his  admiration,  and,  if  Horace  Walpole  is  to  be 
believed,  "  ogl'd  her  as  much  as  he  dares  do  in  so  holy  a 
place  as  an  oratorio."  Her  fate  was  to  marry,  when  eight- 
een, the  most  brilliant,  if  not  the  most  reputable  man  of 
the  day,  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan,  who  had  proved  his 
devotion  to  Miss  Linley  by  fighting  two  duels,  of  which 


MRS.    SHERIDAN  31 

she,  like  Helen  of  Troy,  was  the  cause  of  battle.  Their 
married  life,  although  it  commenced  with  a  runaway  wed- 
ding and  was  short,  was  a  happy  one. 

Gainsborough  painted  several  portraits  of  this  beautiful 
woman,  the  most  beautiful  of  them  all  being  the  one  at 
Knole,  where  she  appears  as  a  child  of  thirteen  or  fourteen 
with  her  little  brother  Tom  peering  over  her  shoulder. 
This  portrait  is  but  a  sketch,  and  was  probably  painted  at 
one  or  two  sittings,  but  nothing  more  beautiful  can  be 
imagined  than  these  two  heads  of  the  girl  and  boy.  She 
has  that  pathetic  expression  so  strongly  marked  in  all  her 
portraits,  and  a  look  of  subdued  awe  is  on  the  boy's  face 
which  reminds  one  of  the  head  of  the  Infant  Saviour  in 
Raphael's  great  picture  of  the  Madonna  at  Dresden. 
There  is  a  life-size  group  of  Elizabeth  Linley  with  her 
sister,  who  afterwards  became  Mrs.  Tickell,  in  the  Dul- 
wich  Gallery,  but  it  is  a  less  beautiful  likeness  than  her 
head  at  Knole,  or  the  full  length,  portrait  of  her  seated  on 
a  bank,  belonging  to  Lord  Rothschild,  which  was  painted 
by  Gainsborough  in  1783,  and  was  formerly  at  Delapre 
Abbey. 

Even  ladies  admired  Mrs.  Sheridan,  which  is  an  uncom- 
mon thing  for  ladies  to  do;  and  they  said  so,  which  is  more 
uncommon  still.  Madame  d'  Arblay  writes  in  1779  that 
"the  elegance  of  Mrs.  Sheridan's  beauty  is  unequalled  by 
any  I  ever  saw,  except  Mrs.  Crewe."  Macaulay  has 
called  her  "  the  beautiful  mother  of  a  beautiful  race  " ;  her 
grandchildren  were  famous  for  their  beauty,  and  three  of 
her  granddaughters  were  the  famous  trio  of  sisters — all 


32  MRS.    SHERIDAN 

gifted  with  brains  as  well  as  good  looks — the  Duchess 
of  Somerset,  Mrs.  Norton,  and  Lady  Dufferin,  the  mother 
of  the  well-known  statesman  and  diplomat,  Lord  DufFerin, 
who  wrote  thus  of  his  great-grandmother.  "For  Miss 
Linley  I  have  not  words  to  express  my  admiration.  It 
is  evident,  from  the  universal  testimony  of  all  who  knew 
her,  that  there  has  seldom  lived  a  sweeter,  gentler,  more 
tender  or  lovable  human  being."  Wilkes  said  of  her : 
"  She  is  superior  to  all  I  have  heard  of  her,  and  is  the  most 
modest,  pleasing  and  delicate  flower  I  have  seen  for  a  long 
time."  Dr.  Parr  said  she  was  "quite  celestial."  A  friend 
of  Rogers,  the  poet,  wrote  "  Miss  Linley  had  a  voice  as  of 
the  cherub  choir.  She  took  my  daughter  on  her  lap  and 
sang  a  number  of  childish  songs,  with  such  a  playfulness  of 
manner  and  such  a  sweetness  of  look  and  voice  as  was 
quite  enchanting."  Garrick  always  alluded  to  her  as  "  the 
saint";  one  bishop  called  her  "  the  connecting  link  be- 
tween a  woman  and  an  angel "  j  and  another  said,  "  to  look 
at  her  when  singing  was  like  looking  into  the  face  of  a 
seraph."  Evidently  kings  and  bishops  were  great  admirers 
of  the  peerless  Eliza  of  Bath. 

Sheridan  must  have  had  some  good  in  him  to  have  been 
so  loved  by  this  saint-like  woman.  In  a  letter  to  a  friend 
she  writes :  "  Poor  Dick  and  I  have  always  been  struggling 
against  the  stream,  and  shall  probably  continue  to  do  so  until 
the  end  of  our  lives  ;  yet  we  would  not  change  sentiments 
and  sensations  with for  all  his  estates." 

Gainsborough  not  only  painted  Miss  Linley,  but  he 
also  modelled  a  bust  of  her  beautiful  head  and  shoulders. 


MRS.    SHERIDAN  33 

He  had  been  to  one  of  the  concerts  at  which  she  sang — he 
never  missed  one  where  her  beautiful  voice  was  to  be 
heard — and  on  his  return  to  the  Circus  he  got  some  clay 
out  of  a  beer-barrel  and  in  a  few  minutes  had  made  a  little 
bust,  which,  when  dry,  he  coloured.  Thicknesse  declared 
that  it  was  better  than  any  portrait  he  had  ever  painted  of 
her;  but  the  next  day  the  bust  disappeared;  no  doubt  it 
had  been  "  dusted  "  by  the  maid,  and  had  come  to  pieces  in 
the  process,  as  so  many  fragile  objects  do  in  similar  cir- 
cumstances. Leslie  is  said  to  have  had  a  cast  taken  from 
another  bust  Gainsborough  made  of  Miss  Linley,  but  that 
also  perished,  probably  in  the  same  way  as  the  first  one. 

Mrs.  Sheridan  died  when  eight-and-thirty ;  her  brother 
Tom,  the  beautiful  bright-eyed  lad  who  appears  on  the 
^me  canvass  with  her  at  Knole,  was  drowned  whilst  still  a 
youth  when  on  a  visit  with  his  sisters  to  the  Duke  of  An- 
caster  at  Grimsthorpe.  Another  of  her  three  brothers,  who 
was  in  the  Navy,  was  lost  at  sea;  all  were  remarkably 
handsome,  as  one  can  see  by  the  portraits  by  Gainsborough 
at  Dulwich. 


CHARLES  I 

(Fan  Dyck) 

H.   KNACKFUSS 

HOWEVER  highly  one  may  value  many  of  the  so- 
called  historical  pictures,  particularly  those  of  relig- 
ious subjects,  which  Van  Dyck  produced  in  the  years  1626 
to  1632,  his  best  works  even  in  this  period  of  his  life, 
which  must  be  regarded  as  his  prime,  lay  in  the  field  of 
portrait-painting.  He  had  an  extraordinary  talent  for  por- 
traying people  with  convincing  resemblance  to  life  and  at 
the  same  time  in  a  most  attractive  pose,  and  turning  such 
portraits  into  real  works  of  art,  perfect  both  in  form  and 
colour,  true  pictures,  as  artists  use  the  word.  This  talent 
was  generally  appreciated,  and  hardly  a  person  of  any  con- 
sequence who  lived  at  Antwerp,  or  stayed  there  on  a  pass- 
ing visit,  omitted  to  have  himself  painted  by  Van  Dyck. 
The  French  Queen  Marie  de  Medicis  visited  him  at  his 
studio  when  she  travelled  through  Antwerp  in  1631,  and 
sat  to  him  for  a  portrait.  Van  Dyck  had  a  skilful  hand  in 
painting  the  likenesses  of  illustrious  people,  but  he  was 
almost  more  successful  in  recording  the  appearance  of  art- 
ists. The  number  of  masterly  portraits  which  he  painted 
before  his  thirty-third  year  expired,  in  addition  to  the  very 
considerable  quantity  of  other  works,  proclaim  a  rapidity  of 
production  not  inferior  to  that  of  Rubens. 

In  the  course  of  1631  negotiations  were  carried  on  with 


CHARLES  I 


CHARLES  I  35 

Van  Dyck  from  England  in  order  to  induce  him  to  settle 
in  London.  King  Charles  I.  had  received  the  picture  of 
Rinaldo  and  Armida  by  the  agency  of  his  gentleman-in- 
waiting,  Endymion  Porter,  in  the  spring  of  the  previous 
year.  What  induced  him,  however,  to  attach  the  Flemish 
master  to  his  court,  according  to  the  statement  of  an  Eng- 
lish historian,  was  not  this  charming  composition,  but  a 
portrait.  A  gentleman  of  the  King's  court,  the  painter  and 
musician,  Nicholas  Lanier,  had  had  himself  painted  by 
Van  Dyck.  He  had  sat  for  the  portrait,  as  is  particularly 
mentioned,  morning  and  afternoon  for  seven  days  in  suc- 
cession, without  being  allowed  by  the  painter  to  see  the 
picture.  All  the  greater  was  his  joy  and  satisfaction  at  the 
sight  of  the  finished  work.  This  was  the  portrait  which 
was  shown  to  Charles  I.,  and  occasioned  Van  Dyck's  jour- 
ney to  England. 

At  the  beginning  of  April,  1632,  Van  Dyck  was  in  Lon- 
don, and  he  was  immediately  taken  into  the  service  of 
Charles  I.  The  King  furnished  the  painter  with  the  means 
of  living  in  a  very  handsome  style.  He  assigned  to  him  a 
town-house  in  Blackfriars  and  a  country-house  at  Eltham 
in  Kent,  and  gave  him  a  very  considerable  income,  which 
was  counted  at  first  by  the  day  and  afterwards  as  a  yearly 
salary,  quite  independently  of  the  payments  for  each  sepa- 
rate picture.  A  few  months  later,  on  the  5th  of  July,  1632, 
he  conferred  on  him  the  highest  mark  of  appreciation  by 
making  him  a  knight,  presenting  him  on  this  occasion,  as  a 
special  mark  of  favour,  with  a  golden  chain  and  his  portrait 
set  in  diamonds.  Van  Dyck's  chief  task  at  the  English 


36  CHARLES  I 

court  was  to  paint  the  King  himself  and  his  Queen,  Hen- 
rietta Maria  of  France.  His  portraits  of  the  English  royal 
pair  are  numerous;  besides  those  in  England  there  are 
several  specimens  also  in  continental  collections.  Van 
Dyck,  not  only  an  admirable  painter  but  a  charming  man, 
enjoyed  the  highest  personal  favour  of  the  King  from 
the  commencement  of  his  residence  in  England.  When 
Charles  I.  wanted  to  escape  from  the  burden  of  affairs  of 
state,  he  would  often  take  boat  on  the  Thames  from  his 
Palace  of  Whitehall  to  Blackfriars,  to  seek  refreshment  in 
unconstrained  and  animated  conversation  with  his  painter. 

There  was  bound  to  be  a  keen  competition  among  the 
nobility  who  frequented  the  court,  to  show  favour  to  the 
artist  whom  the  King  valued  so  highly. 

There  was,  probably,  never  a  painter  anywhere  who  had 
such  numerous  commission  for  portraits  as  Van  Dyck  in 
England.  He  sometimes  had  to  paint  a  number  of  portraits 
of  the  same  people.  For  instance  there  are  said  to  be  nine 
portraits  by  his  hand  of  the  Earl  of  Straffbrd,  the  King's 
most  influential  adviser  at  that  time,  who  went  to  Ireland 
in  that  year,  1632,  as  Lord  Lieutenant,  and  laid  his  head  on 
the  block  nine  years  later  as  the  first  victim  of  the  incipient 
revolution.  Among  the  first  portraits  which  Van  Dyck 
painted,  next  to  those  of  the  royal  couple,  were,  probably 
those  of  his  special  patrons,  the  enthusiastic  lovers  of  art 
who  had  brought  about  his  invitation  to  England.  The 
Earl  of  Arundel,  whom  he  painted  seven  times,  holds  the 
most  distinguished  position  among  these.  Endymion  Porter, 
to  whom  he  owed  his  first  connection  with  Charles  I.,  was 


CHARLES  I  37 

painted  in  one  picture  together  with  Van  Dyck  himself. 
This  joint  portrait  is  now  in  the  Prado  Gallery  at  Madrid. 
In  the  spring  of  1634  Van  Dyck  obtained  leave  of  absence 
to  visit  the  Netherlands,  where  he  remained  till  some  way 
into  the  following  year. 

In  all  probability  it  was  only  in  the  year  1635  that  Van 
Dyck  returned  to  England.  Charles  I.  had  himself  and  his 
family  painted  over  and  over  again  by  the  master.  The 
most  celebrated  portrait  of  the  King  is  that  in  the  Louvre 
which  displays  him  in  riding  costume,  standing  at  the  edge 
of  a  wood,  as  if  he  had  just  dismounted  from  the  hunter, 
impatiently  pawing  the  ground,  which  a  groom  holds  behind 
him.  It  is  a  splendid  piece  of  colouring.  The  King,  in  a 
white  satin  jacket,  red  hose  and  light  yellow  jack-boots, 
with  a  wide-brimmed  black  hat  on  his  long,  brown  hair, 
stands  out  against  a  piece  of  wooded  country,  sloping  away 
to  the  seacoast,  with  a  distant  view  of  the  sea  and  a  sunny 
sky  with  white  clouds.  The  horse,  a  grey,  is  relieved 
effectively  by  the  deep  brownish-green  of  the  forest  trees 
and  the  dull  red  of  the  groom's  dress.  By  the  side  of  the 
groom,  and  partly  hidden  by  his  figure,  we  also  perceive  a 
page  who  carries  the  King's  short  cloak  of  light  silk.  A 
number  of  stately  equestrian  portraits  show  the  King  in 
armour,  but  bare-headed,  with  a  master  of  the  horse  by  his 
side,  who  carries  his  gilt  helmet  for  him.  Then  he  appears, 
in  full  face,  riding  through  a  gateway  which  looks  like  a 
triumphal  arch,  in  a  majestic  picture  at  Windsor.  We  see 
him  in  profile  in  a  small  picture  at  Buckingham  Palace, 
which  seems  to  be  the  sketch  for  a  large  picture  formerly 


38  CHARLES  I 

at  Blenheim  Palace  and  now  in  the  National  Gallery. 
Here  the  King  rides  a  creamvcoloured  horse;  in  the 
Windsor  picture  it  is  grey.  In  another  picture,  also  at 
Windsor,  the  King  is  represented  in  his  royal  robes  of 
ceremony.  Another  portrait  in  the  same  collection  shows 
him  as  the  head  of  a  family  group,  with  the  Queen  and 
their  two  sons. 

There  are  said  to  be  altogether  about  three  hundred  por- 
traits by  Van  Dyck  in  England,  the  majority  of  which  are 
in  the  mansions  of  the  nobility,  still  in  possession  of  de- 
scendants of  the  persons  represented. 

Van  Dyck  could  not  possibly  have  contrived  to  grapple 
with  the  multitude  of  orders  which  reached  him,  had  he  not 
employed  several  gifted  pupils  whom  he  trained  as  assist- 
ants :  Jan  de  Reyn  of  Dunkirk,  whom  he  had  brought  with 
him  from  Antwerp ;  David  Beeck  of  Arnhem  whose  rapidity 
in  painting  excited  amazement,  and  James  Gandy,  who  was 
also  highly  esteemed  as  an  independent  portrait-painter  and 
lived  afterwards  in  Ireland,  are  especially  mentioned.  The 
master  must  have  called  in  the  help  of  pupils  extensively  in 
the  numerous  cases  in  which  replicas  were  required ;  that 
was  frequently  done,  for  the  sake  of  making  valuable 
presents  at  weddings  or  other  festal  occasions  among  the 
circle  of  relatives  and  acquaintances  of  the  person  in  ques- 
tion. We  have  detailed  information  about  Van  Dyck's 
method  of  working,  from  quite  a  trustworthy  source ;  it 
rests  on  the  declaration  of  a  man  who  stood  in  close 
personal  relations  with  the  artist.  The  writer  De  Piles 
relates  in  his  treatise  on  painting,  which  appeared  at  Paris 


CHARLES  I  39 

in  1708  :  "the  celebrated  Jabach  (of  Cologne),  well-known 
to  all  lovers  of  the  fine  arts,  who  was  on  friendly  terms  with 
Van  Dyck  and  had  had  his  portrait  painted  by  him  three 
times,  informed  me  that  he  spoke  to  that  painter  one  day 
of  the  short  time  which  the  latter  spent  on  his  portraits, 
whereupon  the  painter  replied  that  at  first  he  used  to  exert 
himself  severely,  and  take  very  great  pains  with  his  portraits 
for  the  sake  of  his  reputation,  and  in  order  to  do  them 
quickly,  at  a  time  when  he  was  working  for  his  daily  bread. 
Then  he  gave  me  the  following  particulars  of  Van  Dyck's 
customary  procedure.  He  appointed  a  day  and  hour  for 
the  person  whom  he  was  to  paint,  and  did  not  work  longer 
than  one  hour  at  a  time  on  each  portrait,  whether  at  the 
commencement  or  at  the  finish ;  as  soon  as  his  clock 
pointed  to  the  hour,  he  rose  and  made  a  reverence  to  his 
sitter,  as  much  as  to  say  that  this  was  enough  for  the  day,  and 
then  he  made  an  appointment  for  another  day  and  hour ; 
thereupon  his  serving-man  would  come  to  clean  his  brushes 
and  prepare  a  fresh  palette,  while  he  received  another  per- 
son who  had  made  an  appointment  for  this  hour.  Thus  he 
worked  at  several  portraits  on  the  same  day,  and  worked, 
too,  with  an  astonishing  rapidity.  After  he  had  just  begun 
a  portrait  and  grounded  it,  he  made  the  sitter  assume  the 
pose  which  he  had  determined  for  himself  beforehand,  and 
made  a  sketch  of  the  figure  and  costume  on  grey  paper  with 
black  and  white  chalk,  arranging  the  drapery  in  a  grand 
style  and  with  the  finest  taste.  He  gave  this  drawing 
afterwards  to  skilled  assistants  whom  he  kept  employed,  in 
order  to  transfer  it  to  the  picture,  working  from  the  actual 


40  CHARLES  I 

clothes  which  were  sent  to  Van  Dyck  at  his  request  for 
this  purpose.  When  the  pupils  had  carried  out  the 
drapery,  as  far  as  they  could,  from  nature,  he  went  over  it 
lightly  and  introduced  into  it  by  his  skill  in  a  very  short 
time  the  art  and  truth  which  we  admire.  For  the  hands  he 
employed  hired  models  of  both  sexes."  It  is  clear  that  this 
account  refers  to  the  later  period  of  this  busy  portrait- 
painter.  In  his  earlier  portraits  Van  Dyck  unmistakably 
carried  out  not  only  the  nude,  but  also  all  the  drapery  and 
all  accessories  with  his  own  hand  entirely.  As  for  the 
hands  it  is  true  that  they  show,  even  in  the  earlier  portraits 
at  Genoa,  a  uniform  delicacy  which  does  not  correspond 
with  the  speaking  and  individual  characterization  of  the 
faces.  Still  there  are  many  portraits  by  him,  too,  in  which 
the  character  of  the  hands  is  just  as  ably  and  closely  studied 
as  that  of  the  face ;  this  is  always  the  case,  in  particular, 
with  the  portraits  of  artists. 

We  are  further  informed  that  Van  Dyck  was  fond,  at 
the  end  of  his  day's  work,  of  inviting  the  persons  whom 
he  was  painting  to  dine  with  him,  and  that  at  these  repasts 
the  style  of  entertainment  was  no  less  sumptuous  than  that 
adopted  by  the  highest  classes  of  society  in  England. 
After  his  work  was  done,  Van  Dyck  lived  like  a  prince. 
His  earnings  were  immense,  and  he  spent  them  freely. 

It  is  thought  that  a  certain  decline  of  artistic  power  is 
observable  in  the  portraits  which  Van  Dyck  painted  after 
1635.  It  is  certainly  possible  that  in  many  of  them  the 
great  haste  of  production  and  the  collaboration  of  pupils 
are  all  too  visible.  In  any  case,  however,  the  master  pre- 


CHARLES  I  41 

served  to  the  end  one  peculiarity  of  his  portraits  which  he 
had  displayed  even  in  those  painted  at  Genoa  in  his  youth ; 
that  is,  the  incomparable  nobility  of  treatment  which  ap- 
pears in  every  face  and  every  form  and  in  the  whole  char- 
acter of  the  pictures.  It  is  impossible  that  all  the  persons 
of  rank  whom  Van  Dyck  painted  should  have  possessed 
that  distinction  of  character  and  that  aristocratic  grace 
which  makes  them  appear  so  attractive  in  their  likenesses. 

But  Van  Dyck  saw  in  the  souls  of  his  models,  as  reflected 
in  their  features,  nothing  but  the  winning  qualities  of  a  noble 
nature ;  not  only  everything  common,  but  everything  which 
bore  the  stamp  of  passion,  lay  outside  the  range  of  his  artistic 
vision.  Thus  he  filled  the  figures  which  he  portrayed  with 
an  aristocratic  and  harmonious  tranquillity  of  soul,  of  which 
the  noble  and  peaceful  beauty  of  the  colouring — a  marvel 
of  art  in  itself — seems  merely  the  natural  expression  in 
painting.  These  figures  stand  before  us  in  so  strikingly 
natural  and  almost  lifelike  a  shape,  that  the  qualities  afore- 
said tell  all  the  more  effectively  in  the  result.  There  is  a 
quite  peculiar  charm  in  a  portrait  by  Van  Dyck.  It  always 
gives  one  the  feeling  of  being  in  very  good  society,  and 
makes  one  think  that  it  would  have  been  a  treat  to  converse 
with  the  original  of  the  portrait.  That  is  why  one  is  never 
tired  of  looking  at  such  a  portrait,  even  though  the  person 
represented  may  be  entirely  unknown. 

It  is  curious — though  there  are  many  parallel  cases — 
that  Van  Dyck  never  felt  permanently  satisfied  with  his 
occupation  as  a  portrait-painter,  by  which  he  earned  such 
imperishable  fame,  but  fancied  that  he  saw  his  true  voca- 


42  CHARLES  I 

tion,  spoilt  by  the  force  of  circumstances,  in  the  production 
of  grand  historical  pictures.  The  more  completely  the 
multitude  of  portraits  to  be  painted  occupied  his  time,  the 
more  intensely  did  he  crave  to  be  doing  something  great  in 
another  sphere  of  work. 


PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  GIRL 

(Boucher) 

CH.  MOREAU-VAUTHIER 

A  PORTRAIT  of  an  unknown  female  is  always 
illuminated  with  a  halo  of  mystery  and  intrigue. 
We  make  research  into  the  life  of  the  painter,  we  delve 
among  his  years  of  youth  and  adventure ;  we  consult  his 
friendships,  relationships  and  connexions;  we  are  guilty 
of  many  indiscretions,  and  often  of  many  bold  judgments. 
We  are  determined  to  find  out  something. 

But  when  we  find  ourselves  obliged  to  give  up  all  hope 
of  discovering  anything,  when  the  veil  remains  impene- 
trable, the  charm  becomes  transformed  and  is  enhanced. 
When  the  ties  binding  us  with  elapsed  centuries  are  once 
broken,  when  the  past  is  once  dead,  the  phantom  of  colours 
that  dreams  upon  the  canvas  glows  with  a  new  life.  We 
have  the  illusion  that  it  sees  us,  that  it  is  looking  at  us,  and 
that  in  its  eyes  are  gleaming  replies  to  our  thoughts.  And 
an  enthralling  friendship  comes  into  existence  between  the 
masterpiece  and  its  admirer.  Perchance  such  attachments 
are  the  happiest  as  well  as  the  purest  of  all.  In  any  case, 
they  are  not  to  be  laughed  at :  who  can  tell  us  that  our 
sympathy  is  the  dupe  of  our  imagination  ?  or  who  can  say 
that  the  soul  does  not  love  to  hover  around  images  that 
represent  its  old  dwelling-places  ? 

It  may  be  that  this  delightful  unknown  is  the  amiable 


44  PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  GIRL 

Murphy,  who  was  the  favourite  model  of  the  master  during 
his  youth,  and  was  represented  in  a  picture  ordered  by 
Louis  XV.,  and  had  the  honour  of  attracting  the  attention 
and  even  the  interest  of  the  King. 

We  cannot  admit  the  belief  that  a  canvas  of  this  kind, 
in  which  the  execution  demands  more  truth  than  fancy, 
could  have  been  executed  without  a  model,  as  was  Bou- 
cher's custom  towards  the  end  of  his  life.  Reynolds  tells 
us  that  during  his  travels  in  France  he  went  to  pay  a  visit 
to  the  master  and  found  him  occupied  in  painting  a  picture 
of  great  importance  without  the  aid  of  a  model  or  other 
material  suggestion  of  any  kind.  And  when  the  English 
painter  expressed  his  astonishment,  Boucher  replied  that  he 
had  paid  sufficient  attention  to  models  in  his  youth  to 
be  able  to  do  without  them  henceforth.  The  little  Murphy, 
having  taken  flight  in  the  direction  of  the  gallant  horizons 
of  Watteau's  Departure  for  Cytbera^  had,  as  we  see,  left 
the  master  without  either  embarrassment  or  regret. 

This  procedure,  though  one  of  the  most  dangerous  in  art, 
did  not  hinder  Boucher  from  producing  such  works  as  the 
Rising  and  the  Setting  of  the  Sun  (Wallace  Collection),  Rinaldo 
and  Armida  (Louvre),  Venus  asking  Vulcan  for  arms  for 
Mneas  (Louvre),  the  pictorial  effect  and  the  tender  and 
unctuous  brushwork  of  which  are  very  charming.  Diderot 
himself,  a  severe  judge,  who  criticised  him  vigorously, 
sometimes  could  not  prevent  himself  from  admiring  his 
talent,  although  with  an  amusing  rage  at  finding  himself 
conquered  in  spite  of  himself:  "  He  attaches  you  to  him- 
self; you  have  to  go  back  to  him.  He  was  born  to  turn 


PORTRAIT  OF  A   YOUNG  GIRL 


PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  GIRL  45 

the  heads  of  the  two  kinds  of  persons,  society  people  and 
artists.  The  artists  who  can  understand  to  what  degree 
this  man  has  surmounted  the  difficulties  of  painting,  a 
merit  that  is  known  to  scarcely  any  one  but  themselves, 
bow  the  knee  before  him,  he  is  their  god." 

Theophile  Gautier  says :  "  He  possessed  the  true 
painter's  temperament,  an  inexhaustible  invention,  a  pro- 
digious facility,  and  an  execution  which  is  always  that  of 
an  artist  even  in  his  most  careless  works.  Without  doubt 
he  abused  these  precious  gifts,  but  prodigality  is  permitted 
only  to  the  rich,  and  in  order  to  throw  gold  out  of  the 
windows  we  must  first  possess  it." 

David  was  the  head  of  the  reaction  against  the  facile  exu- 
berance of  this  style  of  painting. 

Protected  by  Madame  de  Pompadour,  who  appreciated  his 
delightful,  picturesque  and  graceful  talent,  which  was  alto- 
gether to  the  taste  of  the  period,  Boucher  enjoyed  a  career 
as  happy  as  it  was  fruitful,  and  left  to  his  admirers  the  rich 
heritage  of  more  than  a  thousand  pictures  and  ten  thousand 
drawings. 


THE  DONNA  VELATA 

(Raphael) 

JULIA  CARTWRIGHT 

ONE  more  portrait  belongs  to  this  period  (1516)  the 
Donna  Velata  of  the  Pitti,  which,  long  labelled  as  a 
copy  by  a  Bolognese  artist,  is  now  universally  admitted  to 
be  a  masterpiece  of  Raphael's  art.  The  picture  is  of  rare 
interest.  It  is  the  only  woman  portrait  of  his  Roman  days, 
and  represents,  there  can  be  little  doubt,  the  face  of  his  be- 
loved. The  fables  of  the  painter's  love  for  the  baker's 
daughter  have  long  been  rejected  as  a  modern  invention, 
and  the  portraits  that  formerly  went  by  the  name  of  the 
Fornarina,  are  now  known  to  have  no  connection  with 
Raphael.  The  Improvisatrice  of  the  Tribune  and  the 
Doretea  of  Berlin  are  the  work  of  Sebastian  del  Piombo, 
and  the  Fornarina  of  the  Barberini  Palace  was  painted  by 
Giulio  Romano.  This  half-naked  woman,  with  the  bold, 
black  eyes,  is  plainly  some  handsome  model  who  sat  to 
Raphael's  scholars.  There  is  no  reason  whatever  to  as- 
sume that  she  was  the  painter's  mistress,  and  as  careful  in- 
spection will  show,  the  bracelet  bearing  the  words,  "  Raphael 
Urbinas,"  which  is  commonly  supposed  to  be  a  proof  of 
this  theory,  was  added  by  another  hand  and  formed  no  part 
of  the  original  work.  This  picture  is  a  coarse  and  vulgar 
one,  with  none  of  the  peculiar  characteristics  of  Raphael's 
drawing,  and  utterly  lacking  the  distinction  that  is  the  su- 


THE  DONNA   VELATA 


THE  DONNA  VELATA  47 

premc  quality  of  his  art.  Again,  Vasari's  stories  of  the 
master's  excesses  may  be  dismissed  as  idle  calumnies,  of 
which  no  evidence  is  to  be  found  in  contemporary  records, 
and  which  are  not  even  mentioned  in  Sebastian  del  Piombo's 
malicious  letters. 

Raphael,  judged  by  the  standard  of  his  own  times,  led  a 
blameless  life,  wholly  devoted  to  his  art,  and  too  much  ab- 
sorbed in  the  work  of  creation  to  be  eager  to  form  new  ties. 
Maria  Bibbiena,  the  wife  whom  his  friend  the  Cardinal 
wished  to  give  him,  died  before  the  wedding-day,  and  lies 
buried  by  his  side  in  the  Pantheon.  But  the  story  of  the 
woman  whom  he  loved  remains  wrapt  in  obscurity.  In 
two  sonnets  which  he  wrote  on  the  back  of  his  studies  for 
the  Disputa,  now  in  the  British  Museum,  he  addresses  the 
lady  of  his  love  as  one  far  above  him,  and  vows  that  he 
will  never  reveal  her  name.  And  Vasari  tells  us  that  he 
loved  one  woman  to  his  dying  day,  and  made  a  beautiful 
and  living  portrait  of  her,  which  Matteo  Botti,  of  Florence, 
kept  as  a  sacred  relic.  Cinelli,  writing  in  1677,  mentions 
this  portrait  as  still  in  the  house  of  the  Botti,  but  soon  after- 
wards it  must  have  passed  with  the  Medici  Collection, 
where  it  remained,  at  the  Grand  Duke's  villa  of  Poggio 
Reale,  until  1824.  It  is  painted  on  canvas,  like  the  por- 
traits of  Castiglione  and  the  two  Venetians  in  the  Doria 
Palace,  with  the  same  pearly  shadows  and  the  same  warm 
golden  glow.  The  maiden  is  of  noble  Roman  type,  her 
features  are  regular,  her  eyes  dark  and  radiant.  The  white 
bodice  that  she  wears  is  embroidered  with  gold,  and  the 
sleeves  are  of  striped  yellow  damask.  A  veil  rests  on  her 


48  THE  DONNA  VELATA 

smoothly  parted  hair  and  a  string  of  shining  black  beads 
sets  off  the  whiteness  of  her  finely  modelled  neck.  Here, 
then,  we  have  the  woman  whom  Raphael  loved  to  the  end. 
Whether  she  was  the  lady  of  the  sonnets,  and  his  verses 
are  written  in  the  book  that  she  clasps  to  her  heart,  or  the 
Mamola  bella  whom  he  mentions  in  the  letter  to  his  uncle 
we  cannot  tell.  But  we  know  that  the  same  beautiful, face 
meets  us  again  in  the  royal- looking  Magdalen,  who  stands 
at  St.  Cecilia's  side  in  the  Bologna  altar-piece,  and  in  that 
most  divine  of  all  his  Virgins,  the  Madonna  di  San  Sisto. 

Both  of  these  were  painted  at  this  period.  The  first 
was  ordered,  towards  the  end  of  1513,  by  Cardinal  de' 
Pucci,  for  his  kinswoman,  Elena  Duglioli,  but  only  finished 
in  1515.  This  noble  Bolognese  lady  had  heard  a  voice 
from  heaven,  bidding  her  raise  a  chapel  to  St.  Cecilia,  and 
it  is  this  incident  which  is  recorded  in  Raphael's  picture. 
He  has  painted  the  Virgin-martyr  holding  an  organ  in  her 
hand  and  standing  in  a  woodland  landscape  with  four  other 
saints.  On  the  right,  the  Magdalen  holds  her  vase  of 
precious  ointment.  Behind  them,  St.  Augustine  and  a  youth- 
ful St.  John  listen  for  the  organ  melodies  that  will  soon  fill 
the  air,  but  St.  Cecilia  herself  has  caught  the  sound  of  other 
voices,  and  her  own  instrument  drops  from  her  hand,  as, 
lifting  her  rapt  face  to  heaven,  she  sees  the  golden  light 
breaking  in  the  sky  and  hears  the  angel-song.  Unfor- 
tunately, this  fine  picture  was  taken  to  Paris  in  1798,  and 
there  transferred  to  canvas  and  entirely  re-painted,  so  that 
the  design  is  now  the  only  part  of  Raphael's  work  remain- 
ing. 


THE  DONNA  VELATA  49 

The  Madonna  di  San  Sisto  was  painted  entirely  by 
Raphael's  hand,  in  the  same  transparent  colour,  with 
the  same  light  and  rapid  touch  as  the  portraits  of  this 
period.  We  notice  the  same  silvery  tones,  the  same  ab- 
sence of  dark  shadows,  as  in  the  Castiglione  and  the  Donna 
Velata.  No  studies  for  this  picture  are  known  to  exist, 
and  the  red  chalk  outline  on  the  canvas  itself  was  probably 
the  artist's  sole  preparation  for  the  work.  It  was  painted 
for  the  friars  of  San  Sisto  of  Piacenza,  possibly  at  the  re- 
quest of  Antonio  de'  Monti,  Cardinal  of  S.  Sisto,  and  sold 
by  the  same  community,  in  1753,  to  Augustus  III.  of  Saxony 
for  £9,000. 

The  surface  has  been  damaged  by  the  restorer's  hand, 
the  colour  has  peeled  off  in  places  and  St.  Barbara's  face 
has  been  badly  injured,  but  still  the  picture  retains  a  certain 
sublime  beauty  which  makes  it  unlike  all  other  Madonnas. 
The  Child  cradled  in  His  mother's  arms  and  looking  out 
with  grave  wonder  on  the  world,  has  less  of  innocent  mirth 
than  Raphael's  other  babies  and  more  of  the  majesty  of  the 
Incarnate  God.  This  Virgin's  face,  with  the  calm  broad 
forehead  and  the  mystery  about  the  eyes,  is  that  of  the  un- 
known maiden  whose  features  sank  so  deeply  into  Raphael's 
heart,  but  raised  and  glorified  above  all  earthly  thoughts. 
And,  as  before,  old  memories  are  mingled  with  the  new. 
The  pure  line  and  flowing  drapery,  the  perfect  rhythm  of 
the  whole,  recalls  the  Madonna  of  the  Gran  Duca,  and 
recollections  of  the  earliest  and  fairest  of  his  Florentine 
Virgins  come  to  blend  with  this  immortal  dream  of  his  last 
Roman  years. 


PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN 

(Andrea  del  Sarto) 

COSMO  MONKHOUSE 

ANDREA  DEL  SARTO,  who  painted  the  beautiful 
portrait,  No.  690,  once  supposed  to  be  his  own,  was 
the  pupil  of  Piero,  but  went  far  beyond  his  master  in  grace 
and  technical  skill.  The  cool,  sweet  colour  of  the  picture, 
and  its  silvery  tone,  distinguish  it  from  all  its  surroundings, 
and  the  contrast  is  increased  by  its  free  but  sure  handling, 
the  soft  modulations  of  the  flesh,  and  the  broad  scheme  of 
chiaroscuro,  which  now  begins  to  take  its  place  as  a  prom- 
inent element  in  the  composition  of  a  picture.  It  was  from 
Leonardo  da  Vinci  that  he  learnt,  perhaps,  so  to  merge  the 
lights  into  the  shadows  by  subtle  gradations,  that  the  point 
of  fusion  is  imperceptible,  and  outlines  are  lost  without  des- 
troying either  shape  or  substance;  but  it  is  doubtful 
whether  Leonardo  himself  ever  succeeded  so  well  in  ren- 
dering the  shadowed  softness  of  nature  as  Andrea  does  in 
this  picture.  It  is  not  fair  to  compare  it  in  this  respect  with 
Leonardo's  exquisite  Madonna  of  the  Rocks^  where  the  light- 
ing is  evidently  arbitrary  and  artificial ;  for  the  bent  of 
Leonardo's  mind  was  more  experimental  than  impulsive,  his 
aim  rather  the  definition  of  form  than  truth  of  illumination. 
He  had  more  of  the  sculptor  in  his  composition  than  Andrea 
del  Sarto,  but  less  of  the  painter.  Both  of  them,  however, 
attempted  to  resolve  the  same  physical  difficulties  of  their 


PORTRAIT  OF  A   YOUNG  MAN 


PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN  51 

art ;  both,  in  their  portraits,  were  interested,  not  only  in  the 
bodies,  but  in  the  minds  of  their  sitters. 

Whoever  this  handsome,  melancholy  man  may  have  been, 
he,  in  Andrea's  portrait,  at  once  engages  our  interest  in  him, 
and  his  character,  and  his  lot  in  the  world.  It  is  a  face 
with  a  history.  It  is,  moreover,  a  face  which  fits  in  so 
well  with  the  traditions  of  Andrea  del  Sarto,  the  weak  man 
with  the  beautiful,  wilful  wife,  the  perfect  artistic  tempera- 
ment, the  man  of  finest  impulses,  cursed  by  fate,  the  being, 
indeed,  as  drawn  for  us  in  Browning's  famous  poem,  that  it 
is  not  without  a  struggle  that  one  gives  up  the  cherished 
notion  that  this  is  not  his  own  presentation  of  himself. 

At  all  events  it  is  an  exquisite  picture,  and  thoroughly  char- 
acteristic of  the  master.  It  is  conjectured  that  it  may  be  a 
portrait  of  a  sculptor,  and  that  the  curious  block  which  he 
holds  in  his  sensitive  hands  is  a  brick  of  modelling  clay. 

We  may  now  be  said  to  have  reached  the  highest  point 
of  Florentine  art,  for  Andrea  del  Sarto  (1486-1531)  was  the 
last  of  the  great  painters  of  Florence,  younger  by  thirty-four 
years  than  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  eleven  years  the  junior  of 
Michaelangelo,  both  of  whom  greatly  advanced  the  de- 
velopment of  his  genius.  Like  both  these  artists  his  pre- 
cocity was  extraordinary ;  for  he  was  scarcely  twenty  when 
he  commenced  the  famous  frescoes  in  the  court  of  S.  Annun- 
ziata  at  Florence,  which  would  alone  suffice  to  raise  his 

fame,  if  not  to  the  level  of  these  artists,  at  least  above 

• 

nearly  all  the  rest  of  his  generation.  Those  who  have  the 
greatest  claims  to  dispute  his  place  are  Fra  Bartolommeo 
and  Albertinelli.  Of  the  former  the  National  Gallery  pos- 


52  PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN 

sesses  no  example,  of  the  latter  it  has  only  one  very  small 
work,  The  Virgin  and  Child.  Fortunately  these  deficiencies 
are  not  of  great  importance  in  connection  with  Andrea  del 
Sarto,  who  gained  his  inspiration  from  greater  men,  and 
whose  perfect  perception  of  the  natural  graces  and  un- 
affected charms  of  human  beauty,  whose  fine  but  simple 
style  and  personal  feeling  for  colour,  were  born  in  himself. 
Though  his  genius,  despite  our  beautiful  portrait,  is  scarcely 
felt  in  our  Gallery,  yet  this  work  distinguishes  him  by  per- 
haps his  most  essential  characteristics,  as  the  most  purely 
artistic  and  the  most  simply  human  of  the  great  painters 
of  Florence.  He  was  neither  a  philosopher  nor  a  devotee, 
a  scientist  nor  a  scholar,  but  only  a  painter  and  a  man.  If 
we  add  that  he  was  a  great  painter  but  not  a  great  man,  we 
shall  get  a  rough  approximation  to  a  true  estimate  of  him. 
There  are,  however,  few  personalities  more  fascinating  than 
his,  and  there  are  few  greater  pleasures  in  the  National  Gal- 
lery than  to  trace  the  links  which  attach  him  more  or  less 
remotely  to  other  artists. 


THE  DAUGHTER  OF  ROBERTO  STROZZI 

(Titian) 

J.  A.  CROWE  and  G.  B.  CAVALCASELLE 

FILIPPO  STROZZI  is  remembered  in  Florentine  his- 
tory as  the  great  party  chieftain  who  went  into  exile 
with  those  of  his  countrymen  who  refused  to  acknowledge 
Alessandro  de'  Medici.  He  led  the  gallant  but  ill-fated 
band  of  patriots  which  strove  in  1537,  to  prevent  the  ac- 
cession of  Duke  Cosimo.  He  took  his  own  life  in  prison 
when  informed  that  Charles  the  Fifth  had  given  him  up  to 
the  vengeance  of  the  Medici.  His  sons  Piero  and  Leo 
fought  with  the  French  for  Italian  supremacy,  whilst 
Roberto  spent  his  life  partly  at  Venice,  partly  in  France 
and  at  Rome,  consuming  some  of  the  wealth  of  "the 
richest  family  "  in  Italy  in  patronizing  painters  and  men  of 
letters.1  His  daughter  was  a  mere  child  when  she  sat  to 
Titian  ;  but  the  picture  which  he  produced  is  one  of  the 
most  sparkling  displays  of  youth  that  was  ever  executed 
by  any  artist,  not  excepting  those  which  came  from  the 
hands  of  such  portraitists  as  Rubens  or  Van  Dyck.  The 
child  is  ten  years  old,  and  stands  at  the  edge  of  a  console, 
on  which  her  faithful  lap-dog  rests.  Her  left  hand  is  on 

1  Francesco  Sansovino  dedicated  to  Roberto  Strozzi  his  translation  of 
Berosus,  for  which  Roberto  made  him  a  present  of  a  gold  cup,  which  he 
left  by  will  to  his  widow.  Strozzi  was  also  well  known  to  Michelangelo, 
and  negotiated  with  him  for  an  equestrian  statue  of  Henry  II.,  of  France, 
in  the  name  of  Catherine  de'  Medici. 


54  THE  DAUGHTER  OF  ROBERTO  STROZZI 

the  silken  back  of  the  favourite.  Her  right  holds  a  frag- 
ment of  the  cake  which  both  have  been  munching.  Both, 
as  if  they  had  been  interrupted,  turn  their  heads  to  look 
straightway  out  of  the  picture — a  movement  seized 
on  the  instant  from  nature.  It  is  a  handsome  child, 
with  a  chubby  face  and  arms,  and  a  profusion  of 
short  curly,  auburn  hair; — a  child  dressed  with  all  the 
richness  becoming  an  heiress  of  the  Strozzi,  in  a  frock  and 
slippers  of  white  satin,  girdled  with  a  jewelled  belt,  the 
end  of  which  is  a  jewelled  tassel,  the  neck  clasped  by  a 
necklace  of  pearls  supporting  a  pendant.  The  whole  of 
the  resplendent  little  apparition  relieved  in  light  against  the 
russet  sides  of  the  room,  and  in  silver  grey  against  the 
casement,  through  which  we  see  a  stretch  of  landscape,  a 
lake  and  swans,  a  billowy  range  of  hills  covering  the  bases 
of  more  distant  mountains,  and  a  clear  sky  bedecked  with 
spare  cloud.  The  panelled  console  against  which  she 
leans  is  carved  at  the  side  with  two  little  figures  of  dancing 
Cupids,  and  the  rich  brown  of  the  wood  is  made  richer  by 
a  fall  of  red  damask  hanging.  One  can  see  that  Titian 
had  leisure  to  watch  the  girl,  and  seized  her  characteristic 
features,  which  he  gave  back  with  wonderful  breadth  of 
handling,  yet  depicted  with  delicacy  and  roundness  equally 
marvellous.  The  flesh  is  solid  and  pulpy,  the  balance  of 
light  and  shadow  as  true  as  it  is  surprising  in  the  subtlety 
of  its  shades  and  tonic  values,  its  harmonies  of  tints  rich, 
sweet,  and  ringing ;  and  over  all  is  a  sheen  of  the  utmost 
brilliance.  Well  might  Aretino,  as  he  saw  this  wondrous 
piece  of  brightness  exclaim :  "  If  I  were  a  painter,  I 


THE  DAUGHTER    OF  R.   STROZZI 


THE  DAUGHTER  OF  ROBERTO  STROZZI     55 

should  die  of  despair  .  .  .  but  certain  it  is  that 
Titian's  pencil  has  waited  on  Titian's  old  age  to  perform 
its  miracles." 

The  picture  is  on  canvas ;  the  figure  of  life-size.  On 
a  tablet  high  up  on  the  wall  to  the  left  we  read  ANNOR  x. 
MDXLII.,  and  on  the  edge  of  the  console  to  the  right, 
TITIANVS  F.  Old  varnish  covers  and  partly  conceals  the 
beauty  of  this  picture,  which  is  retouched  on  the  girl's 
forehead  and  elsewhere ;  but  the  surface  generally  is  well 
preserved.  At  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  the 
portrait  was  in  the  palace  of  Duke  Strozzi  at  Rome. 


THE  AMBASSADORS 

(Hans  Holbein) 

SIR  WALTER  ARMSTRONG 

CT^ffE  Ambassadors  is  the  most  important  of  all  Holbein's 
existing  portraits.  Even  when  his  ceuvre  was  still 
intact,  it  can  only  have  been  excelled  by  the  group  of  kings 
and  queens  who  perished  with  old  Whitehall.  In  charm 
it  may  yield  to  the  Darmstadt  Madonna  or  to  the  Duchess 
of  Milan,  in  perfection  of  artistic  unity  to  such  things  as  the 
Morette  at  Dresden,  the  Gisze  at  Berlin,  or  even  the  Duke 
of  Norfolk  at  Windsor ;  but  in  colour — so  far  as  its  colour 
is  visible  through  the  perished  varnish — and  in  that  extra- 
ordinary instinct  which  enabled  Holbein  to  give  his  work  a 
look  of  subordination  when  in  fact  it  has  none,  it  yields  to 
nothing  he  ever  did. 

Of  the  two  "  Ambassadors,"  one  is  vastly  more  im- 
portant than  the  other.  His  costume  of  crimson  silk, 
white  fur,  and  some  black  stuff,  the  exact  texture  of  which 
cannot  be  determined  in  the  present  condition  of  the  sur- 
face, makes  a  brave  show,  and  overwhelms  the  modest 
richness  of  the  younger  man's  robe  of  greenish-brown 
brocade.  His  cap  is  the  flat  beret,  of  which  traces  re- 
main in  the  hats  of  our  Yeomen  of  the  Guard,  and  in 
those  which  should  be  worn  by  an  Oxford  D.  C.  L.  The 
badge  dependent  from  his  neck  is  said  to  be  that  of  the 
French  Order  of  St.  Michael;  it  should  be  remembered, 


THE  AMBASSADORS 


THE  AMBASSADORS  57 

however,  that  the  St.  Michel  had  an  elaborate  collar,  the 
omission  of  which  is  not  in  accordance  with  Holbein's 
usual  habit.  On  the  sheath  of  his  dagger  appears  the 
inscription,  "  JET.  SVJE  29."  The  accessories  arranged 
on  his  left  include  a  terrestrial  and  a  celestial  globe,  and 
various  instruments  used  in  astronomy.  The  younger 
man  wears  a  doctor's  cap,  but  the  rest  of  his  costume  does 
not  seem  to  belong  to  any  particular  office  or  degree.  The 
attributes  of  this  second  figure  seems  to  proclaim  him  a 
musician.  A  lute,  a  joined  flute,  an  open  book  with  the 
words  and  music  of  a  popular  German  chorale,  lie  upon 
the  lower  shelf  of  the  what-not.  The  words  of  this 
chorale,  and  those  legible  in  the  other  open  book,  are  given 
in  Woltmann's  Holbein^  p.  360  (English  edition). 

On  the  upper  shelf  the  only  thing  that  belongs  to  him  is 
the  book  on  which  his  right  elbow  rests.  This  bears  on  its 
edges  the  words  "JETATIS  SVJE  25."  Low  down,  behind 
the  principal  figure,  appears  the  inscription  "  JOANNES  HOL- 
BEIN, PINGEBAT,  1533."  The  background  is  a  curtain  of 
green  silk  brocade.  After  the  old  varnish  is  removed  this 
ought  to  turn  out  as  fine  as  the  similar  background  to  the 
Dresden  Morette.  With  the  deep  blue-green  of  the  celes- 
tial globe  and  the  crimson  sleeve  beside  it,  it  makes  up  the 
finest  colour  passage  in  the  picture. 

The  history  of  the  panel  is  obscure.  It  is  known  to 
have  belonged  in  the  last  century  to  Jean  Baptiste  Pierre 
Lebrun,  the  husband  of  the  lady  we  know  as  Madame 
Vigee-Lebrun.  From  him  it  seems  to  have  come  into 
the  hands  of  Buchanan,  the  Napoleon  of  picture-dealers, 


58  THE  AMBASSADORS 

who  sold  it  to  the  Lord  Radnor  of  the  day  for  a  thousand 
guineas.  In  his  Gallerie  des  Peintres  Flamands^  Hollandais, 
et  Allemands  (1792),  Lebrun  declares  Holbein's  sitters  to 
have  been  two  French  diplomats,  MM.  de  Selve  and 
d'Avaux,  who  were  in  the  service  of  Francis  I.  As  Mr. 
J.  Gough  Nicholls  (Archesologia^  1873),  has  pointed  out, 
this  identification  is  spoilt  by  dates.  In  England  the  two 
portraits  have  passed  for  those  of  Sir  Thomas  Wyat  and  his 
friend  John  Leland,  the  antiquary.  Wyat  was  born  in 
1503,  so  that  his  age  would  do  at  a  pinch.  The  year  of 
Leland's  birth  is  unknown.  Unfortunately,  the  heads  do 
not  in  the  least  correspond  with  more  authentic  portraits  of 
these  two  worthies,  while  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  is 
suited  by  the  attributes  Holbein  has  so  carefully  piled  up. 

In  the  Times  of  September  the  eleventh  (1900),  Mr. 
Sidney  Colvin  started  a  theory  which  fits  in  exactly  with 
some  of  the  facts.  He  suggests  that  the  chief  ambassador 
is  Jean  de  Dinteville,  who  was  in  London  as  the  represent- 
ative of  Francis  in  1533.  This  conjecture  is  supported  by 
the  traditional  title  of  the  picture,  by  the  absence  of  any 
English  records  connected  with  it,  and  by  dates,  for  Dinte- 
ville was  born  on  September  2ist,  1504,  while  it  meets  with 
little  that  has  to  be  explained  away.  Since  he  wrote  his 
letters  to  the  Times,  Mr.  Colvin,  as  I  gather  from  a  private 
communication  he  has  been  kind  enough  to  send  me,  has 
discovered  evidence  to  connect  the  second  figure  with 
Nicholas  Bourbon.  Bourbon  was  a  friend  of  Dinteville, 
and  what  we  know  of  his  character  agrees  with  the  picture. 
He  was  born,  however,  in  1503,  which  seems  a  difficulty. 


THE  AMBASSADORS  59 

Mr.  Colvin  lays  stress  upon  the  similarity  of  the  chief 
ambassador's  costume  to  that  worn  by  the  Dresden  Morette 
(whose  identity  with  a  Piedmontese  noble  sent  to  England 
as  a  hostage  by  Francis  I.  seems  now  to  be  placed  beyond 
dispute),  as  a  proof  that  our  ambassador  was  also  French. 
His  argument  loses  some  of  its  force,  however,  when  we 
recollect  that  similarities  just  as  significant  occur  between 
both  of  these  portraits  and  the  cartoon,  for  instance,  at 
Chatsworth,  for  the  Whitehall  Henry  Fill.  The  family 
likeness  between  Morette's  poignard  and  tassel  and  those  of 
our  "  ambassador,"  also  finds  its  explanation  in  the  more 
than  probability  that  both  were  invented  by  the  painter 
himself. 

In  some  ways  the  solution  sent  by  "  C.  L.  E.," — trans- 
parent initials — to  the  Times  of  October  the  seventh  (1900), 
fits  the  problem  better.  In  the  more  imposing  figure  he 
sees  George  Boleyn,  Viscount  Rocheford,  the  brother  of 
Anne  Boleyn,  who  was  sent  both  in  1529  and  in  1533  on 
missions  to  the  French  Court ;  and,  in  his  companion, 
the  humbly-born  William  Paget,  who  afterwards  became 
such  an  important  person  and  was  raised  to  the  peerage  as 
Lord  Paget.  All  that  is  known  of  Rocheford's  age  is  that 
he  was  born  before  1507.  Of  Paget's  nothing  positive  can 
be  said,  but  the  two  men  may  easily  have  been  twenty-nine 
and  twenty-five  respectively  in  1533.  Many  things  seem 
to  confirm  this  theory.  Paget  was  a  protege  of  the  Boleyn 
family.  Both  he  and  Rocheford  were  sent  on  missions  to 
the  Continent  in  1533.  Paget  was  strongly  attracted  by  the 
doctrines  of  the  German  reformers.  Rocheford  may  very 


60  THE  AMBASSADORS 

probably  have  received  the  Order  of  St.  Michael  from  the 
French  king.  The  disgrace  into  which  he  fell,  and  his 
tragic  end,  would  explain  the  disappearance  of  his  picture 
from  England,  while  the  fact  that  he  and  his  companion 
were  only  known  beyond  the  seas  as  English  envoys  would 
account  for  its  traditional  title.  The  skull  may  have  been 
inserted  afterwards  by  Holbein  in  allusion  to  Rocheford's 
death,  or  it  may  be  a  rebus  on  the  painter's  own  name — 
Ho(h)l-bein.  This  latter  theory  seems  to  me  infinitely 
more  probable.  That  it  is  no  after-thought  seems,  indeed, 
to  be  proved  by  the  fact  that  the  strong  lines  of  the  mosaic 
floor  do  not  show  through  it,  as  they  certainly  would  by  this 
time  had  it  been  painted  above  them  even  so  late  as  the 
last  century. 


NELLY  O'BRIEN 

(<SVr  'Joshua  Reynolds) 

M.  H.  SPIELMANN 

A  LTHOUGH  this  portrait  of  Nelly  O'Brien  is  not, 
•/JL  perhaps,  the  prettiest  of  Reynolds's  several  (at  least 
four)  versions  of  the  famous  actress,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
perfect  examples  of  his  art  remaining  perfect  for  us  at  the 
present  day.  It  is,  indeed,  extremely  fine  alike  as  to  quality 
and  colour,  and  has  probably  not  much  changed  since  it 
was  painted  in  1763.  Yet  this  picture,  which  some  believe 
to  be  the  very  finest  of  all  his  masterpieces,  was  sold  by 
auction  in  the  lifetime  of  the  painter  for  ten  guineas  (Mr. 
Taylor  said  three);  and  in  1793  it  had  risen  to  twenty-one 
pounds  at  the  Hunter  sale,  when  it  was  knocked  down  to 
Sir  Watkin  Williams  Wynn.  In  1810,  it  was  acquired  by 
the  Marquess  of  Hertford  for  sixty-four  pounds.  The 
picture  was  exhibited  for  the  first  time  at  the  Old  Masters 
Exhibition  at  Burlington  House  in  1872,  when  its  brilliant 
condition  created  a  good  deal  of  sensation. 

Seated  full  face  in  a  landscape,  with  a  white  poodle  (or  is  it 
a  spaniel  ?)  in  her  lap,  the  famous  courtesan,  her  face  in 
delicate  shadow,  wears  what  was  called  a  Woffington  hat 
upon  her  head.  The  quilted  petticoat  beneath  the  muslin 
dress,  the  black  lace  mantilla,  and  the  pearl  necklace  are  all 
painted  with  extraordinary  brilliancy,  yet  with  perfect 


62  NELLY  O'BRIEN 

realism.  The  picture  was  not  engraved  during  her  life- 
time. The  lady  died  in  1768,  in  Park  Stre<=*%  Grosvenor 
Square,  and  two  years  later  appeared  Charles  Phillips's 
mezzotint,  with  (in  the  second  state),  some  verses  by 
Dryden  beneath  the  title.  J.  Wilson,  J.  Watson,  and 
C.  Spooner  also  immortalized  the  lady  in  their  plates. 

It  is  remarkable  that,  in  spite  of  her  notoriety,  Nelly 
O'Brien  has  received  little  notice  of  the  biographers  and  the 
writers  on  the  by-ways  of  the  life  of  the  town.  She  has 
been  described  as  "  a  young  lady  of  the  Kitty  Fisher 
School."  A  writer  in  Blackwood  exclaimed  when  the 
picture  was  exhibited  at  Bethnal  Green  :  "  Bless  her !  how 
friendly  her  eyes  look  as  she  sits  there  bending  forward ! — 
listening  is  she  ?  with  arch  half-smile,  slightly  amused  at 
the  long  stories  we  are  telling  her,  but  all  in  the  most 
genial  neighbourly  way.  By-and-by  surely  a  mellow  Irish 
laugh  will  burst  into  the  silence.  Who  was  she,  this  sweet 
Nelly  ?  We  do  not  know,  nor  what  became  of  her,  nor 
whom  she  made  happy  with  those  smiles  of  hers."  In  his 
Life  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds^  Mr.  Claude  Phillips  refers  to 
the  frequency  of  the  visits  of  Nelly  O'Brien  to  the  studio, 
from  which  has  been  supposed  that  she  sat  to  the  cold- 
hearted  Reynolds  for  the  figures  of  his  portraits  of  ladies, 
and  he  quotes  from  his  pocketbook  for  1762,  an  entry: 
"With  Miss  Nelly  O'Brien  in  Pall  Mall,  next  door  to  this 
side  the  Star  and  Garter"  What  she  was  is  hinted  at  in 
Leslie  and  Taylor's  Life  and  Times  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds : 
"  She  was  the  chere  amie  of  Lord  Bolingbroke,  as  well  as 
everybody  else  (see  Walpole's  letter  to  George  Montague, 


NELLY    O'BRIEN 


NELLY  O'BRIEN  63 

March    29,    1766)."     She  was   indeed   one   of  the  most 

fascinating   women    of   the    day,    and    entangled   a  great 

number   of    high-born    persons    in    her   net    at  the  same 
time. 


THE  MAN  WITH  THE  PINKS 

(John  van  Eyck) 

FRANCES  C.  WEALE 

THE  Berlin  Gallery  possesses  a  portrait  known  as  The 
Man  with  the  Pinks,  which  was  probably  painted 
about  the  year  1436,  and  represents  an  elderly  individual  of 
by  no  means  prepossessing  appearance.  His  face  is  deeply 
wrinkled,  his  eyes  have  a  puffy  line  of  flesh  beneath  them, 
his  mouth  droops  at  the  corners  and  is  of  a  hard,  somewhat 
coarse  type,  while  his  ears  are  specially  hideous,  being  large 
and  prominent :  altogether  he  has  a  very  unpleasant  cast  of 
countenance.  But  John  van  Eyck  has  been  faithful  to  his 
love  of  veracity — not  a  feature  is  softened  down — he  has 
portrayed  the  man  as  he  was  in  the  most  lifelike  manner 
conceivable.  He  wears  a  dark  grey  coat  with  fur  collar 
and  cuffs,  which  is  sufficiently  low  in  the  neck  to  allow  the 
brocaded  tunic  beneath  to  appear,  and  a  large  broad- 
brimmed  beaver  hat.  Around  his  neck  is  a  silver  chain 
i 

from  which  hangs  a  tau  cross  with  the  bell  of  Saint  Anthony 
attached  thereto.  In  his  right  hand,  on  the  third  finger  of 
which  he  carries  a  fine  ring,  he  holds  three  wild  pinks. 
The  picture  is  unsigned,  and  so  far  it  has  not  been  dis- 
covered who  this  person  was. 

It  is  as  a  painter  of  portraits  that  John  van  Eyck  has 
given  us  the  greatest  proofs  of  his  genius,  and  undoubtedly 
he  merits  to  be  considered  one  of  the  foremost  in  this  re- 


THE  MAN  WITH  THE   PINKS 


THE  MAN  WITH  THE  PINKS  65 

spect  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  His  men  and  women 
seem  to  be  living  realities,  so  strongly  does  the  personality 
of  each  appeal  to  us,  for  Van  Eyck  not  only  correctly  de- 
lineated the  features  of  his  patrons,  but  studied  them  until 
he  grasped  and  could  transfer  to  his  panel  the  characteristics 
of  each  one.  Flattery  was  beneath  him ;  we  see  each  as 
he  or  she  was  in  life,  plain  or  well-featured  as  the  case 
might  be — every  wrinkle,  every  mole  or  hair  has  been  care- 
fully noted — but  more  than  this  John  van  Eyck  strove 
faithfully  to  convey  the  imprint  of  the  mind  upon  the 
countenance  as  far  as  it  had  been  indelibly  traced  by  the 
hand  of  time.  Faults  as  well  as  virtues  are  set  down  with 
perfect  frankness.  We  can  see  that  The  Man  with  the 
Pinks  was  unamiable  in  disposition  as  well  as  unattractive 
in  feature;  Arnolfini,  in  the  National  Gallery  picture,  is 
too  sanctimonious  for  our  English  taste,  and  his  wife  is  a 
somewhat  insipid  creature ;  nevertheless  there  is  an  unmis- 
takable stamp  of  genuineness  about  the  quaintness  of  this 
couple ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  painter's  wife  is  de- 
cidedly a  woman  of  strong  character,  intelligent  and  sympa- 
thetic ;  and  the  other  two  portraits  in  the  National  Gallery 
and  that  of  Jan  De  Leeuw  in  the  Vienna  Gallery  show  us 
men  of  intellect,  differing  widely  in  many  respects,  but  all 
straightforward  and  manly. 

In  all  his  pictures  of  religious  subjects  regarded  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  ideal,  John  van  Eyck  is  disappointing. 
He  never  rose  above  material  things — he  painted  what  was 
before  him  with  exquisite  skill,  rendering  even  the  most 
minute  details  in  a  marvellous  manner,  but  beyond  that  he 


66  THE  MAN  WITH  THE  PINKS 

could  not  go.  He  seems  to  have  been  devoid  of  the 
imaginative  faculties,  the  deep  reverence  and  contemplative 
spirit  essential  to  the  production  of  works  of  a  true  devo- 
tional type.  Therefore  it  is  not  surprising  that  his  Madon- 
nas are  excellent  portraits  of  the  homely  Flemish  women 
whom  he  chose  as  his  models,  comely  at  least  according  to 
his  idea  if  not  according  to  ours,  but  utterly  lacking  the 
dignity,  the  refinement,  purity  and  intense  spirituality  which 
belong  to  the  Mother  of  Our  Lord.  With  his  saints  it  is 
the  same — there  is  nothing  in  his  representation  of  them  to 
raise  the  mind  above  the  things  of  earth ;  in  fact  in  some 
instances  they  have  the  contrary  tendency,  and  are  rendered 
ridiculous  by  the  sharp  contrast  which  they  present  to  our 
ideals. 

John  did  not  succeed  in  harmonizing  his  colour  as  well 
as  his  brother  did,  nor  yet  in  producing  such  rich  mellow 
tints;  where  he  excelled  was  in  the  accuracy  and  minute- 
ness with  which  he  rendered  detail,  and  in  the  marvellous 
finish  which  he  gave  to  his  paintings — a  finish  so  carefully 
manipulated  that  sometimes  not  a  stroke  of  the  brush  is 
visible.  Perhaps  the  best  examples  of  his  skill  in  this  re- 
spect are  the  portraits  of  Timothy,  and  of  John  Arnolfini 
and  his  wife  in  the  National  Gallery,  which  one  may  ex- 
amine with  a  strong  magnifying-glass,  and  yet  only  reveal 
with  greater  distinctness  the  tiniest  details  therein  depicted. 
At  times  his  colour  is  so  faulty  in  tone  as  to  be  even  un- 
pleasant— take,  for  instance,  the  Van  der  Paele  picture  in 
the  Bruges  Academy,  in  which  the  flesh  tints  are  hard  and 
red.  His  drawing  of  the  hand  is  another  noticeable  point : 


THE  MAN  WITH  THE  PINKS  67 

often,  though  not  always,  it  is  too  small  and  weak,  with 
fingers  that  taper  unduly;  his  draperies,  too,  are  voluminous, 
angular,  and  stiff,  contrasting  unfavourably  with  the  grace- 
ful flowing  lines  to  be  seen  in  Hubert's  work. 

The  date  of  John  van  Eyck's  birth  is  unknown.  He 
was  several  years  younger  than  Hubert ;  Van  Mander  as- 
serts this  and  the  portraits  in  the  Ghent  altar-piece,  tradi- 
tionally known  as  Hubert  and  John,  show  a  great  difference 
in  their  age.  It  is  generally  assumed  that  John  was  born 
about  the  year  1382,  but  it  is  probable  that  his  birth  took 
place  some  years  earlier.  He  was  no  doubt  educated  and 
instructed  in  the  art  of  painting  by  Hubert.  The  great 
improvements  made  about  the  commencement  of  the  Fif- 
teenth Century  in  the  method  of  painting  have  been  at- 
tributed to  discoveries  made  by  John,  but  it  is  far  more 
likely  that  they  were  the  joint  work  of  the  two  brothers, 
though  no  doubt  John  in  later  years  carried  his  technical 
skill  to  greater  perfection.  The  change  thus  brought  about 
has  erroneously  been  described  as  the  "  discovery  of  paint- 
ing in  oil."  Now  it  is  well-known  that  oil  was  used  in  the 
process  of  painting  sculpture  even  in  much  earlier  times ; 
and  that  in  the  Fourteenth  Century  tempera  paintings  were 
often  coated  with  an  oily  varnish  in  order  to  preserve  them 
and  to  give  depth  and  vigour  to  the  colour,  especially  to 
that  of  the  draperies.  Once,  so  the  story  runs,  John  van 
Eyck,  after  having  expended  much  time  and  labour  on  a 
certain  picture,  placed  it  when  it  had  been  varnished,  to 
dry  in  the  sun,  and,  either  owing  to  some  defect  in  the 
panel  or  to  the  excessive  heat,  it  warped  and  was  of  course, 


68  THE  MAN  WITH  THE  PINKS 

ruined.  He  therefore  set  to  work  to  find  a  varnish  that 
would  dry  in  the  shade  and  thus  obviate  such  mishaps ;  his 
experiments  must  first  have  been  directed  towards  discover- 
ing which  oils  possessed  the  most  drying  properties  5  having 
decided  that  they  were  linseed  and  nut  oils,  he  aimed  at 
rendering  these  more  siccative  by  mixing  with  them  certain 
resinous  substances,  and  thus  he  obtained  a  varnish  that 
dried  easily.  Next  he  found  that  by  mixing  his  colours 
with  these  oils  he  greatly  increased  their  vigour,  gave  them 
a  lustre  of  their  own  independent  of  varnish,  and  what  was 
of  still  greater  importance,  caused  them  to  mingle  far  better 
than  tempera.  His  final  effects  must  have  been  directed 
towards  rendering  his  medium  as  colourless  and  liquid  as 
possible. 

This  wonderful  improvement  must  have  cost  both 
brothers  much  patient  labour.  Of  the  various  steps  by 
which  they  arrived  at  perfection,  of  the  repeated  failures 
which  probably  they  had  to  put  up  with  ere  success  crowned 
their  efforts,  of  the  exact  materials  used  by  them  in  the 
process,  we  know  nothing.  What  is  so  vexatious  to  the 
student  and  to  all  interested  in  the  subject,  is  that  none  of 
the  earlier  works  of  Hubert  and  John,  none  of  those  be- 
longing to  the  period  when  the  change  was  actually  taking 
place,  remain  or  at  least  are  known  to  us.  We  cannot 
trace  the  gradual  improvement,  but  must  needs  be  content 
with  examples  of  their  skill  after  they  had  brought  their 
new  method  to  a  fairly  finished  stage  of  perfection.  It  is 
an  event  which  stands  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  art, 
that  suddenly,  from  the  inferior  tempera  panels  of  the  earlier 


THE  MAN  WITH  THE  PINKS  69 

schools,  we  pass  to  such  a  masterpiece  as  the  Adoration  of 
the  Lamb.  The  inscription  on  this  picture  tells  us  that  it 
was  undertaken  by  Hubert  at  the  desire  of  Jodoc  Vydt. 

Hubert  died  on  the  i8th  of  September,  1426,  and  was 
buried  in  the  Vydts's  chapel  in  Saint  Bavon,  Ghent.  Con- 
cerning John  van  Eyck  we  possess  far  more  information. 
He  entered  the  service  of  John  of  Bavaria  at  the  Hague  on 
October  22nd,  1422,  and  from  that  day  until  his  death  in 
1440,  we  have  a  fairly  complete  account  of  his  movements. 
He  was  employed  by  John  of  Bavaria  at  the  Hague  until 
the  nth  of  September,  1424.  At  Bruges  on  the  iQth  of 
May  in  the  following  year  he  was  appointed  official  painter 
to  Philip  the  Good,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  a  patron  and  lover 
of  art,  who  treated  him  with  much  kindness  and  confidence, 
even  intrusting  to  him  secret  and  important  missions  in  for- 
eign countries.  He  remained  at  Bruges  for  three  months 
after  this  appointment  and  then  by  order  of  the  Duke  re- 
moved to  Lille,  where  he  resided  until  1428,  though  in  the 
interval  he  was  sent  on  his  first  secret  journey.  From 
October,  1428,  till  January,  1430,  he  was  again  absent, 
having  accompanied  John  de  Roubaix  and  Baldwin  de 
Lannoy,  on  an  embassy  to  the  Portuguese  court,  their  ob- 
ject being  to  treat  for  the  hand  of  the  Infanta  Isabella, 
whose  portrait  John  painted  and  sent  to  Philip. 

In  1431,  John  van  Eyck  bought  a  house  at  Bruges, 
married  and  settled  there.  From  this  time  until  his  death 
he  went  on  producing  fresh  works  every  year,  save  in  1435, 
when  he  was  again  sent  by  Philip  on  a  journey,  the  object 
of  which,  as  usual,  was  secret  j  so  tnat  we  have  a  complete 


70  THE  MAN  WITH  THE  PINKS 

series  of  paintings,  signed  and  dated,  by  which  to  judge  the 
progress  of  his  talent.  He  died  on  the  Qth  of  July,  1440, 
and  was  buried  in  the  churchyard  of  Saint  Donatian's 
Church  at  Bruges;  but  on  March  2ist,  1441,  at  the  re- 
quest of  his  brother  Lambert,  his  body  was  removed  into 
the  church  and  placed  in  a  vault  near  the  font. 


THE  THREE  SISTERS 

(Palma  Fecckio) 

CH.  MOREAU-VAUTHIER 

THE  ideal  of  beauty  in  woman  is  submissive  to  the  in- 
fluence of  the  prevailing  fashion.  The  Gothic  masters 
and  the  early  Italians  were  fond  of  the  frail  silhouettes  that 
bespoke  ardent  natures ;  the  Renaissance  on  the  contrary, 
appreciated  ample  forms  in  which  shone  all  the  attractions 
of  carnal  loveliness. 

Certain  words  reach  us  through  the  centuries  like  a  faint 
echo  of  extinct  manners.  The  name  virago,  taken  in  a  bad 
sense  in  our  pacific  days,  in  old  times  was  uttered  in  vows 
of  passionate  admiration,  and  young  ladies  of  massive  form 
and  stature,  such  as  our  heroines,  accepted  this  merited  in- 
cense with  great  satisfaction.  Since  the  manners  and  cus- 
toms of  the  period  were  still  marked  with  violence,  it  was 
necessary  that  woman  should  know  how  on  occasion  to 
raise  her  weakness  to  the  level  of  manly  virtues,  and,  fol- 
lowing the  example  of  Catherine  Sforza,  who  was  pro- 
claimed "  Prima  Donna  d'ltalia,"  should  show  herself 
capable  of  successfully  defending  a  stronghold.  Never- 
theless, that  epoch  of  transition  so  fertile  in  contrasts,  the 
Italian  Renaissance,  enervated  itself  with  literature,  art  and 
science,  and  demanded  that  woman  should  receive  an  edu- 
cation that  would  enable  her  to  taste  the  delights  of  learned 
conversation.  Elegant  and  refined  circles  formed  in  high 


72  THE  THREE  SISTERS 

society,  and  in  them  letters  reigned  even  more  authoritatively 
than  the  great  ladies  themselves. 

Painting  could  not  help  reflecting  to  some  extent  the 
dilettanteism  of  these  fashionable  gatherings.  Palma 
Vecchio  has  the  reputation  of  being  the  first  to  put 
into  his  pictures  personages  represented  in  their  natural 
size  and  figure.  In  a  world  that  glitters  with  lavish  intel- 
lectual talk,  the  head  is  interesting  above  everything  else ; 
it  is  useless  to  figure  the  rest  of  the  body.  These  pictures 
called  "  Conversations  "  enjoyed  an  enormous  vogue.  The 
pious  world  of  religious  pictures  even  had  to  bow  to  this 
craze,  and,  after  his  profane  "Conversations"  Palma  pro- 
duced his  "  Holy  Conversations,"  like  the  Madonna  with 
St.  Peter  (Colonna  Palace),  and  the  Madonna  with  Saints 
(Naples  Museum). 

It  is  probable  that  a  single  person,  the  painter's  daughter, 
served  as  the  model  for  these  three  young  women.  We 
are  assured  that  she  was  very  beautiful,  and  frequently 
posed  as  a  model  for  her  father's  pictures ;  and  the  reports 
we  possess  of  her  great  beauty,  her  full  cheeks  and  large 
eyes  fully  agree  with  the  type  of  the  Three  Sisters.  Titian, 
Palma' s  friend,  who  had  a  most  lively  admiration  for  his 
colleague's  daughter,  was  in  the  habit  of  calling  her 
Violante,  in  memory  of  a  woman  whom  she  resembled, 
and  with  whom  he  had  been  in  love.  Legend  has  even  been 
guilty  of  the  indiscretion  of  adventuring  into  romantic  sup- 
positions, with  absolutely  insufficient  justification,  whither 
we  decline  to  follow. 

Palma's  talent,  characteristically  Venetian,  that  is  to  say 


THE  THREE  SISTERS  73 

seeking  after  splendour  rather  than  style,  insists  on  warmth 
of  flesh  tints  and  richness  of  vestment,  with  a  strength  of 
tone  which  without  equalling  Titian  yet  often  recalls  the 
latter's  splendour ;  and  this  to  such  a  degree  that  a  certain 
canvas  by  Palma  called  Titian's  Beauty  has  been  attributed 
to  Titian.  The  taste  of  the  painters  for  magnificent  stuffs 
was  favoured  by  the  usages  of  the  day.  The  liberty  allowed 
in  matters  of  the  toilette  permitted  of  fancies  that  were  often 
of  happy  effect,  but  in  which  we  should  be  wrong  to  seek 
examples  of  general  styles  similar  to  those  of  our  own  day. 
In  our  life  of  activity,  equality  and  practicality,  we  prefer 
to  adopt  uniform  costumes,  quite  as  much  on  account  of 
economy  of  time  as  of  dread  of  seeming  singular.  The 
great  lords  and  great  ladies  of  the  Renaissance,  on  the  con- 
trary, gloried  in  making  a  splendid  display  of  themselves 
both  to  the  outside  world  and  to  one  another,  in  luxurious 
parades,  with  a  splendour  which  we  are  no  longer  familiar 
with. 


JOHN  TAIT  AND  HIS  GRANDSON 

(Raeburri) 

R.  A.  M.  STEVENSON 

JOHN  THOMSON  of  Doddington,  Puvis  de  Cha- 
vannes,  Corot,  Manet,  Sargent  and  Raeburn  are  a  few 
out  of  many  artists  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  whose 
private  means  have  enabled  them  to  live  without  painting, 
or  rather  to  live  for  painting  and  not  for  bread.  They  are 
all  men  who  have  added  to  tradition  and  increased  the 
possibilities  of  expression  in  their  art. 

The  six  or  seven  years  following  his  marriage  Rae- 
burn spent  in  the  practice  of  portraiture,  living  quietly 
in  his  house  at  Deanhaugh  and  in  his  studio  in 
George  Street.  During  this  period  of  his  young  life, 
he  painted  several  persons  of  note ;  he  mixed  with 
genial  and  intelligent  people ;  he  joined  in  the  sports  of 
the  day  and  the  country.  Self-criticism  and  the  con- 
sequent desire  for  improvement  never  left  him,  and  he  had 
means  enough  to  allow  him  to  follow  his  own  course. 
When  he  had  lived  about  six  years  at  Deanhaugh,  a  sense 
of  his  deficiencies  sent  him  travelling.  He  went  to 
London  and  consulted  the  President  of  the  Academy. 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  received  the  young  man  well,  and 
permitted  him,  so  it  is  said,  to  work  for  a  month  or  two 
under  his  guidance.  But,  of  course,  in  those  days  the 
burden  of  advice  was  "  Go  to  Rome."  In  this  case,  Sir 


JOHN  TAIT  AND  HIS  GRANDSON  75 

Joshua  with  the  advice,  offered  also  the  wherewithal  to 
follow  it — money  and  introductions  to  men  of  note  in 
Italy. 

Money  was  not  necessary  to  Raeburn,  but  he  thankfully 
accepted  introductions  which  might  forward  his  studies 
abroad.  He  remained  scarcely  more  than  two  years  in 
Rome ;  but  he  made  the  most  of  his  time,  for  the  friend- 
ship of  men  like  James  Byers  and  Gavin  Hamilton  must 
have  saved  him  trouble,  mistakes,  and  misapplication  of 
energy.  Upon  his  return,  he  set  to  work  with  fully- 
matured  powers  upon  that  long  career  of  portrait-painting 
which  he  sustained  till  his  death.  Almost  at  once  he  be- 
came the  most  admired  of  his  profession,  both  as  a  man  and 
as  a  painter.  Sir  John  and  Lady  Clerk  of  Penicuik  were 
amongst  his  earlier  patrons,  doubtless  through  the  offices  of 
the  painter's  early  friend  John  Clerk  (Lord  Eldin),  who 
belonged  to  the  Penicuik  family.  Principal  Hill,  of  St. 
Andrew's,  and  John  Clerk  himself,  were  painted  also  in 
these  comparatively  early  days.  Burns  Raeburn  must  have 
seen  when  the  poet  ran  his  short  race  of  fame  at  Edinburgh 
dinners  and  receptions;  yet  until  lately,  it  was  unhesitat- 
ingly asserted  that,  if  the  painter  saw  him,  he  never 
painted  his  portrait.  Sir  Walter  Scott,  John  Wilson, 
Kames,  Mackenzie,  Hume,  Robertson,  Dugald  Stewart, 
Hutton,  Ferguson — to  cut  it  short,  everybody — sat  to 
him,  except,  perhaps,  the  greatest  of  all,  Robert  Burns. 

The  slow  growth  of  his  fame  since  he  died,  the  excellent 
preservation  of  his  canvases  to-day,  the  confirmation  of 
his  simple,  direct  method  of  work  by  the  practice  of 


76  JOHN  TA1T  AND  HIS  GRANDSON 

succeeding  schools,  do  more  to  establish  his  reputation 
in  our  minds  than  any  honours  or  titles  he  received  during 
his  lifetime.  The  official  stamp  of  merit,  however,  was 
set  upon  him  none  too  soon.  The  year  after  his  knight- 
hood, the  year  in  which  he  received  the  title  of  "  His 
Majesty's  Limner  for  Scotland,"  was  the  year  of  his 
death.  Of  all  who  have  held  the  title  he  was  undoubtedly 
the  greatest. 

Now  we  know  Raeburn's  way  of  using  paint,  and  it  is 
one  which  would  be  perfectly  acceptable  to-day.  Indeed, 
it  scarcely  differs  from  that  once  taught  in  the  studio  of 
M.  Carolus  Duran.  But  before  describing  Raeburn's 
habits  at  the  easel  as  they  have  been  told  by  us  by  several 
of  his  sitters,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  run  over  the  account 
of  his  education.  Compared  with  theatrical,  mystical, 
academic,  and  mannered  artists,  Raeburn  learnt  more 
from  observation  than  he  did  from  tradition.  He  received 
little  formal  teaching ;  his  early  practice  of  portrait  minia- 
ture was  untaught  copying  of  nature.  His  acquaintance 
with  Martin  meant  simply  copying  that  artist's  pictures. 
His  work  for  the  jeweller  Gilliland  consisted  in  designing 
for  metal-work.  When  he  went  to  Italy  the  art  critic 
Byers  counselled  him  never  to  work  except  from  nature, 
even  on  the  smallest  accessory,  a  piece  of  advice  quite 
agreeable  to  the  painter's  own  feelings  and  confirmatory 
of  his  life-long  habit.  Indeed,  if  one  looks  generally  at 
English  portraiture  from  Van  Dyck  onwards,  the  most  of 
it,  the  best  of  it,  appears  mannered  in  comparison  with  the 
work  of  Raeburn.  Raeburn  was  the  pupil  of  Nature; 


JOHN  TAIT  AND  HIS  GRANDSON  77 

but  to  learn  from  this  master  one  must  first  know  enough 
to  understand  one's  lessons,  and  without  doubt  Racburn 
had  been  taught  something  of  drawing,  perspective,  and 
the  common  use  of  oil-paint.  From  his  early  masters  he 
had  learnt  his  craft  and  the  use  of  his  tools ;  his  art  and 
his  direct  style  came  from  his  own  personal  intercourse 
with  Nature.  The  methods  of  work  adopted  by  Raeburn 
were  not  unlike  those  of  such  men  as  Carolus  Duran  or 
Manet,  who  consciously  taught  themselves  to  seek  for 
manner  in  a  way  of  looking  at  nature.  Neither  the 
Frenchman  nor  the  Scot  copied  or  imitated  a  manner ;  they 
merely  returned  to  that  broad  observation  of  real  light 
which  had  produced  both  the  style  of  Velasquez  and  the 
style  of  Rembrandt. 

The  likeness  between  the  practice  of  Raeburn  and  that 
of  recent  French  artists  may  be  seen  from  the  following 
particulars  of  his  method :  (i)  He  seldom  kept  a  sitter 
more  than  an  hour  and  a  half  or  two  hours.  (2)  He 
never  gave  more  than  four  or  five  sittings  to  a  head  or  bust 
portrait.  (3)  He  did  not  draw  in  his  subject  first  with  the 
chalk  point,  but  directly  with  the  brush  on  the  blank  can- 
vas. (4)  Forehead,  chin  and  mouth  were  his  first  touches. 
(5)  He  placed  the  easel  behind  the  sitter,  and  went  away 
to  look  at  the  picture  and  poser  together.  (6)  A  fold  of 
drapery  often  cost  him  more  trouble  than  the  build  or  ex- 
pression of  a  head.  (7)  He  never  used  a  mahl-stick. 
Now,  these  were  the  habits  of  the  French  painters  a  premier 
coup^  a  term  which  does  not  signify  that  each  touch  laid 
was  final,  but  merely  means  that  the  work  was  searched  out 


78  JOHN  TAIT  AND  HIS  GRANDSON 

and  finished  in  one  direct  painting.  This  painting  might 
take  minutes,  hours  or  weeks  j  but  it  passed  only  through 
one  stage,  gradually  approaching  completion  by  a  mould- 
ing, a  refining,  a  correcting  of  the  first  lay-in.  In  fact  the 
general  effect  was  planted  entire  from  the  beginning,  and  was 
not  arrived  at  by  drawing  stages,  chiaroscuro  stages  and  colour 
stages,  brown,  red,  or  green.  If  a  long  time  were  required  for 
search  and  finish,  either  the  picture  was  kept  fluid  by  paint- 
ing in  poppy  oil,  or,  if  allowed  to  dry,  was  started  again  by 
such  dodges  as  scraping,  sand-papering,  oiling-out,  etc. 
These  habits  characterize  not  only  Raeburn  and  the  later 
Frenchmen,  but  naturalists  all  the  world  over,  and  perhaps 
you  might  say  the  painter  in  oil  as  distinguished  from  the 
draughtsman — the  men  who  look  and  shape  by  the  mass,  • 
the  interior  modelling,  the  smudge,  the  gradation  of  light, 
as  distinguished  from  those  who  imagine  and  construct  by 
conventional  lines. 

If  any  painter  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  in  these  isles 
used  paint  after  the  sanest  and  most  enduring  traditions  it 
was  Raeburn.  We  have  seen  that  his  practice  agreed  with 
that  of  the  best  men  before  and  after  his  time,  so  we  may 
claim  that  he  followed  the  true  path  of  art.  The  excel- 
lence of  his  straightforward  method  has  caused  his  colour 
to  stand  much  better  than  that  of  Reynolds.  The  greater 
part  of  Sir  Joshua's  work  has  changed  almost  as  much  as 
the  later  pictures  of  Turner. 

One  can  hardly  resist  comparing  Reynolds  with  Raeburn, 
and  Turner  with  that  other  Scotsman,  Thomson  of  Dud- 
dington.  While  one  admits  the  greater  imaginations  of 


JOHN  TAIT  AND  HIS  GRANDSON  79 

the  two  Englishmen,  one  prefers  the  views  of  nature,  that 
is  to  say,  the  qualities  of  imagination  and  the  consequent 
ideas  of  treatment,  of  the  two  Scotsmen.  Not  only  does 
Raeburn's  solid  square  painting  last  better  than  Sir  Joshua's 
cookery  after  Italian  receipts,  but  one  believes  that  when 
they  were  painted  only  the  greatest  pictures  by  Reynolds 
were  above  Raeburn's  work.  If  Thomson  had  been  a  pro- 
fessional, probably  he  would  have  surpassed  Turner  and 
forestalled  Theodore  Rousseau.  Sheer  fervour  of  imagina- 
tion led  Raeburn  and  Thomson  to  anticipate  by  thirty  years 
the  ideals  of  the  Frenchmen. 

Raeburn  was  not  often  tempted  to  set  his  figures  against 
the  unreal  scenic  background  so  much  used  in  England  by 
Reynolds,  Gainsborough  and  other  portrait-painters.  When 
he  yielded  for  a  while  to  this  fashion,  it  was  against  his  will 
and  better  judgment.  The  habit  agreed  ill  with  his  direct 
and  honest  style  of  work,  with  the  bold  square  touch  by 
which  he  emphasized  the  light  on  the  variously  inclined 
planes  of  the  flesh.  His  own  style,  in  fact,  was  incompati- 
ble with  pretty  elegance,  spotty  colouring,  and  theatrical 
disposition  of  the  canvas.  It  went  best  with  the  solemn 
natural  simplicity  of  Velasquez,  the  Dutchmen  and  the 
Flemings.  Sometimes,  however,  his  handling  was  accom- 
panied by  a  cold,  rather  vicious  greyness  of  colouring,  as 
in  the  wonderful  John  Talt  and  his  Grandson,  a  picture 
highly  characteristic  of  Raeburn's  brushwork.  Its  colour, 
which  is  well  preserved,  makes  one  question  whether  the 
glow  of  other  pictures  may  not  often  be  the  result  of  time 
or  varnish.  John  Tait  and  his  Grandson  was  painted  about 


8o  JOHN  TAIT  AND  HIS  GRANDSON 

1798-9,  and  stands  in  the  strongest  contrast  to  a  certain 
fine  but  rather  artificial  three-quarter-length  portrait  of  a 
man  in  a  green  coat  and  buff  breeches,  holding  a  gun  in  a 
nerveless  hand  and  standing  beneath  a*  decorator's  tree. 
The  paint  is  thinly  smeared,  the  modelling  of  the  face 
subtle,  delicate,  but  unaccentuated,  the  accessories  flat  and 
unconventional,  yet  not  quite  unlike  in  their  superficial  as- 
pect to  those  of  Velasquez  in  his  early  middle  style,  when 
he  painted  the  Three  Royal  Sportsmen  in  the  Prado.  But 
everywhere  in  this  portrait  (Sinclair  of  Ulbster,  I  believe) 
by  Raeburn  you  miss  the  fine  shapeliness  of  the  Spaniard's 
realization  of  form. 

The  simpler  portraits  of  Raeburn  are  his  best.  His  in- 
terest was  centred  on  human  faces ;  not  even  hands  re- 
ceived due  consideration  in  his  portraits.  We  find  R.  L. 
Stevenson  saying  in  Virginibm  Puerisque,  "  Again,  in  spite 
of  his  own  satisfaction  and  in  spite  of  Dr.  John  Brown,  I 
cannot  consider  that  Raeburn  was  very  happy  in  his  hands." 
Although  he  had  painted  it  from  nature,  in  his  youth  Rae- 
burn cared  little  for  landscape.  Faces,  too,  he  must  see 
whilst  he  was  painting.  He  was  no  historical  painter,  de- 
vising expressions,  gestures  and  dramatic  groupings.  He 
was  stimulated  by  real  people  and  real  light,  as  Mr.  Sargent 
is  in  the  present  day.  Yet  it  was  said  that  he  "ennobled 
unworthy  faces,"  which  might  mean  that  he  idealized  their 
shapes.  This  is  improbable.  Possibly  it  means  that  the 
broad  simplicity  of  his  style  gave  them  plastic  dignity  which 
storm,  night,  mist,  or  other  effects  of  light  can  impose  on 
objects  without  any  actual  alteration  of  their  structure.  Sir 


JOHN  TAIT  AND  HIS  GRANDSON  8 1 

Walter  Armstrong  says  :  u  Technically  his  chief  faults  are  a 
want  of  richness  and  depth  in  his  colour,  and  an  occasional 
proneness  to  over-simplify  the  planes  in  his  modelling  of  a 
head."  As  in  sculpture,  so  in  painting,  the  simplification 
of  planes  tends  to  grandeur ;  and  we  may  take  it  that  this 
was  all  the  ennobling  which  Raeburn  consciously  em- 
ployed. In  colour  he  certainly  lacked  richness,  but  in  com- 
parison with  his  contemporaries  scarcely  depth.  We  note 
in  his  portraits  another  cause  of  nobility,  or  perhaps  we 
should  say  vitality,  which,  considering  the  empty  apathy  of 
expression  produced  by  posing,  may  be  called  a  certain  kind 
of  idealization.  We  shall  state  it  in  the  words  of  R.  L. 
Stevenson  :  "  He  was  a  born  painter  of  portraits.  He  looked 
people  shrewdly  between  the  eyes,  surprised  their  manners 
in  their  face,  and  had  possessed  himself  of  what  was  essen- 
tial in  their  character  before  they  had  been  many  minutes 
in  his  studio.  What  he  was  so  swift  to  perceive  he  con- 
veyed to  the  canvas  almost  in  the  moment  of  conception." 

In  the  common  meaning  of  the  term  Raeburn  was  not 
an  idealizer.  Painting  with  him  was  the  direct  sensuous 
perception  of  nature.  The  words  u  imitation  of  nature  " 
would  not  have  frightened  this  enthusiastic  and  ardent  lover 
of  reality.  He  knew  the  beauties  of  nature  too  intimately 
to  despise  them  unless  tricked  out  in  the  adornment  of  an 
artificial  style. 

Raeburn  belongs  to  the  strong  naturalistic  school  which 
strips  off  .accessory  graces  that  the  solemn  fashion  of  light 
may  prevail.  In  conclusion  I  will  quote  Mr.  W.  E.  Hen- 
ley's words,  which  seem  to  me  to  sound  the  tonic  of  my 


82  JOHN  TAIT  AND  HIS  GRANDSON 

discourse :  "  He  came  at  the  break  between  old  and  new, 
when  the  old  was  not  yet  discredited  and  the  new  was  still 
inoffensive;  and,  with  that  exquisite  good  sense  which 
marks  the  artist,  he  identified  himself  with  that  which  was 
known  and  not  with  that  which,  though  big  with  many 
kinds  of  possibilities,  was  as  yet  in  perfect  touch  with  noth- 
ing in  active  existence.  ...  He  was  content  to 
paint  what  he  knew  and  that  only,  and  his  conscience  was 
serviceable  as  well  as  untroubled  and  serene." 


SOME  PORTRAITS  OF  HELENA  FOURMENT 

(Rubens) 

EMILE  MICHEL 

WITH  his  invariable  prudence  and  wisdom  Rubens 
paid  no  heed  to  the  suggestions  of  those  who 
wished  him  to  make  the  brilliant  marriage  to  which  his 
great  position  allowed  him  to  aspire,  a  marriage  which 
would  have  "  fixed "  him  at  court.  He  wisely  feared  to 
enter  a  society  that  might  have  entailed  the  loss  of  his  inde- 
pendence, the  renunciation  of  his  friends,  and  of  the  practice 
of  his  art.  But  he  did  not  tell  Peiresc  that  for  all  his  wis- 
dom and  his  fifty-three  years,  he  had  fallen  passionately  in 
love  with  a  girl  of  sixteen.  The  girl  whose  freshness  and 
youthful  beauty  had  so  completely  charmed  him  was  Helena 
Fourment. 

He  had  known  her  family  for  a  long  time,  and  was  even 
connected  with  it.  Helena's  brother,  Daniel  Fourment — 
he  bore  the  same  Christian  name  as  his  father — married  on 
September  22,  1619,  Clara  Brant,  a  sister  of  Isabella,  Ru- 
bens's  first  wife.  Helena  was  the  youngest  of  Daniel's  ten 
children ;  she  was  baptized  on  April  I,  1614,  at  the  church 
of  St.  Jacques.  The  artist  had  often  seen  her  in  her 
parents'  house,  for  he  painted  numerous  portraits  of  Su- 
sanna, one  of  her  seven  sisters,  married  to  Arnold  Lunden, 
the  Master  of  the  Mint,  notably  the  celebrated  picture  in 
the  National  Gallery,  known  as  the  Cbapeau  de  PoiL 


84         SOME  PORTRAITS  OF  HELENA  FOURMENT 

About  1624-25,  he  painted  magnificent  portraits  of  another 
sister,  Clara  Fourment  and  her  husband,  Pieter  van  Hecke. 
Those  pictures,  which  belong  to  Baron  Edmund  de  Roths- 
child, are  in  marvellous  preservation,  and  their  brilliant 
colour  and  life-like  rendering  cause  them  to  be  reckoned 
among  the  strongest  and  best  of  the  master's  works.  One 
of  Helena's  brothers-in-law,  Nicholas  Picquery,  who  lived 
at  Marseilles,  had  always  assisted  Rubens  to  send  parcels 
to  Peiresc,  and  Rubens  had  recommended  his  kindly  inter- 
mediary to  the  favour  of  the  Provencal  scholar. 

The  large  dowry  that  her  parents  gave  Helena,  in  spite 
of  their  numerous  family  proves  that  the  Fourments  were 
well  off:  they  belonged  to  the  upper  middle  class  and  bore 
a  coat-of-arms.  They  overlooked  the  disproportion  in  age 
on  account  of  the  advantages  such  a  marriage  offered  their 
daughter.  Attracted  by  the  master's  fame  and  high  posi- 
tion, and  perhaps  touched  by  his  ardent  love,  she  accepted 
his  hand.  His  passion  did  not  deprive  Rubens  of  his  prac- 
tical good  sense,  and  before  the  wedding,  he  carefully  settled 
his  sons'  affairs.  On  November  29,  1630,  he  presented  his 
accounts  to  the  guardians,  and  obtained  a  discharge  for  the 
maternal  inheritance  reverting  to  the  two  minors.  On 
December  4th,  the  marriage  settlements  were  signed  in 
the  presence  of  the  members  of  the  family,  before  the 
notary  Toussaint  Guyot.  In  the  deed  Rubens  is  described 
as  "  Knight  Secretary  to  His  Majesty's  Privy  Council  and 
Gentleman  of  the  Household  of  her  Serene  Highness  the 
Princess  Isabella."  The  young  girl's  parents,  Daniel  Four- 
ment and  Clara  Stappaert,  gave  her  a  dowry  of  "  3,000 


HELENA  FOURMENT  WITH  HER  CHILDREN 


SOME  PORTRAITS  OF  HELENA  FOURMENT    85 

Flemish  pounds  income,  and  promised  to  pay  besides  129 
Flemish  pounds,  12  escalins  income  inherited  by  her 
from  the  late  dame  Catherine  Fourment,  her  sister,  and 
also  to  provide  her  with  a  handsome  trousseau.  If  the 
wife  survived  the  husband,  she  was  to  retain  and  keep  all 
her  clothes,  jewels,  woollen  and  linen  goods,  unreservedly, 
as  well  as  a  jointure  of  22,000  caroli,  paid  once  for  all,  to 
be  deducted  from  the  property  of  the  future  husband."  If 
Helena  predeceased  her  husband,  Rubens  was  to  receive  as 
jointure  on  his  part  8,000  caroli,  paid  once  for  all.  As  if 
to  emphasize  the  concord  of  the  two  families,  all  the 
members  present  signed  with  the  couple  and  Helena's 
parents.  Two  days  after,  on  December  6,  1630,  the  mar- 
riage was  celebrated  at  the  Church  of  St.  Jacques,  with  all 
the  splendour  and  ceremony  befitting  the  position  of  the 
couple.  By  the  deed  of  contract,  the  bride's  parents  had 
promised  "  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  wedding-cere- 
mony in  such  a  way  as  to  deserve  honour  and  thanks." 

A  new  life,  filled  with  love  of  the  young  girl  who  was 
henceforth  the  light  of  his  home,  began  for  Rubens,  with 
his  marriage.  She  brought  the  animation  and  gaiety  of 
youth  to  the  big  house,  and  supplied  her  husband  with  the 
most  charming  model  he  could  have  desired.  He  took  up 
his  brushes  again  for  her  sake,  and  the  girl's  freshness  and 
brilliant  complexion  were  well  calculated  to  enchant  him. 
Each  year  had  seen  him  increasingly  occupied  with 
problems  of  light  and  movement ;  but  his  wife  gave  a  new 
brilliance  to  his  palette,  and  his  portraits  of  Helena,  the 
numerous  compositions  of  which  she  was  the  inspiration 


86         SOME  PORTRAITS  OF  HELENA  FOURMENT 

resemble  a  hymn  of  life  and  joy.  Till  the  end  of  his  life 
he  never  tired  of  multiplying  her  image,  and  she  appears  in 
her  portraits  wearing  the  most  varied  and  sumptuous 
costumes,  that  well  set  off  the  charm  of  her  almost  in- 
fantine face.  As  she  matures,  we  follow  the  radiant  de- 
velopment of  her  beauty  in  many  exquisite  works. 

A  fine  picture  in  the  Munich  Gallery  represents  both 
husband  and  wife  in  the  early  period  of  their  marriage, 
walking  in  the  garden  of  their  house.  The  artist  wears  a 
broad-brimmed  felt  hat,  and  a  black  doublet  striped  with 
grey.  The  refined,  intelligent  head,  the  proudly  turned-up 
moustaches,  the  attractive  countenance,  the  distinguished 
bearing,  incline  us  to  regard  him  as  a  young  man ;  a  few 
silver  threads  in  the  fair  beard  show  us  our  mistake.  His 
arm  is  in  Helena's ;  she  is  painted  almost  full  face,  and  her 
pink  complexion  is  protected  from  the  sun  by  a  large  straw 
hat.  Her  hair,  with  its  golden  reflected  lights,  is  cut  in  a 
fringe  over  the  forehead  like  that  of  a  boy,  and  escapes 
round  her  face  in  fair  curls.  Her  black  bodice  opens  over 
a  chemisette ;  her  dull  yellow  skirt  is  turned  up  over  a  grey 
petticoat,  and  a  white  apron  falls  over  both.  She  holds  a 
feather  fan  in  her  hand,  and  a  pearl  necklace  sets  ofF  the 
whiteness  of  her  throat.  She  half  turns  towards  a  young 
page,  entirely  dressed  in  red,  who  follows  her  bareheaded. 
The  couple  approach  a  portico,  beneath  which  a  table  is 
spread  beside  the  statues  and  busts  which  decorate  it ;  some 
bottles  have  been  set  to  cool  in  a  large  basin  on  the  ground. 
The  building,  so  fantastic  in  its  architecture,  which  is  an 
eccentric  mixture  of  Italian  style  and  Flemish  taste,  is  the 


SOME  PORTRAITS  OF  HELENA  FOURMENT         87 

pavilion  the  artist  erected  in  his  garden  not  far  from  the 
house,  and  often  introduced  in  his  pictures.  Near  at  hand 
an  old  woman  feeds  two  peacocks  ;  a  turkey-cock  struts 
about  with  his  spouse,  and  a  friendly  dog  runs  after  their 
young  ones.  The  air  is  warm,  the  lilacs  are  in  bloom ;  the 
young  orange-trees  have  been  released  from  their  winter 
quarters,  and  the  flower-beds  are  gay  with  many-coloured 
tulips.  At  the  side,  the  waters  of  a  fountain,  likewise 
found  in  many  of  Rubens's  pictures,  fall  into  a  basin. 
The  pair  are  about  to  seat  themselves  under  this  portico, 
surrounded  by  these  domestic  animals,  with  the  blue  sky 
and  the  flowers  before  their  eyes,  wholly  given  up  to  a 
happiness  which  is  echoed  in  the  holiday  mood  of  surround- 
ing nature. 

When  we  have  thoroughly  enjoyed  this  beautiful  pic- 
ture, our  eyes  involuntarily  turn  to  the  other  canvas  in  the 
same  room  of  the  gallery,  in  which,  on  an  equally  fine 
spring  day,  Rubens  painted  himself  in  a  honeysuckle 
arbour  with  his  wife  Isabella,  whom  he  had  so  affection- 
ately loved,  who  was  so  intimately  associated  with  his  life, 
and  whose  loss  he  deplored  four  years  earlier.  In  the 
same  involuntary  fashion  it  occurs  to  us  that  the  former 
marriage  was  better  assorted ;  the  intellectual  sympathy 
must  have  been  greater  than  it  could  have  been  with  a 
young  girl  who  passed  so  suddenly  from  the  seclusion  of 
her  father's  house  to  so  conspicuous  a  position.  It  would 
be  interesting  to  learn  something  of  Helena's  character, 
of  her  culture  and  education,  of  her  influence  on  the  great 
man  who  loved  her.  But  no  information  on  these  points 


88          SOME  PORTRAITS  OF  HELENA  FOURMENT 

is  to  be  found  either  in  the  acts  of  her  life,  in  Rubens's 
correspondence,  or  in  the  testimony  of  contemporaries. 
But  the  large  number  of  portraits  of  her  that  Rubens 
painted  bear  eloquent  witness  to  the  strength  and  persist- 
ence of  his  love.  There  is  scarcely  a  gallery  of  impor- 
tance without  a  portrait  of  her,  and  at  Munich  there  are 
four.  The  little  enchantress  seems  to  have  adapted  her- 
self very  quickly  to  her  new  position;  the  perfect  ease 
with  which  she  wears  her  magnificent  costumes  furnishes 
proof  of  this. 

One  of  the  Munich  portraits  is  a  full  length;  she  is 
painted  full  face,  in  sumptuous  attire,  and  is  seated  in  an 
arm-chair  on  a  terrace.  Her  feet  rest  on  an  eastern 
carpet,  and  above  her  head  a  violet  curtain  hangs  between 
two  columns.  Her  dress  is  of  the  richest  material ;  a 
black  satin  gown  opens  over  an  underskirt  of  white  silk 
brocade  embroidered  in  gold.  The  bodice  is  low  enough 
to  reveal  the  curve  of  the  bust ;  a  high  lace  collar  rises 
behind  the  fair  hair  which  frames  her  face.  Her  figure 
has  improved,  and  her  beautiful,  delicate  hands  are  longer. 
She  seems  perhaps  a  little  astonished  at  herself;  but  her 
smiling  expression  preserves  something  of  the  ingenuous- 
ness of  innocent  candour.  We  wonder  whether  the  spray 
of  orange-blossom  in  her  hair  was  placed  there  by  the 
painter  with  intention.  The  execution  is  admirably 
delicate,  easy,  and  sure,  and  the  flesh  tints,  the  freshness 
of  which  is  set  off  by  the  blue  of  the  sky,  have  what 
De  Piles  so  rightly  called  "the  virginity  of  Rubens's 
tints  .  .  .  those  tints  which  he  employed  with  so 


SOME  PORTRAITS  OF  HELENA  FOURMENT         89 

free  a  hand  without  mixing  them  much  for  fear  of  cor- 
rupting them,  and  so  causing  them  to  lose  their  brilliance 
and  truth,  apparent  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  work." 
The  master  excels  here  in  giving  his  work  the  lightness, 
spontaneity,  and  charm  which  accord  so  perfectly  with  the 
youth  of  the  sitter. 

Not  to  speak  of  other  pictures  at  the  Hague,  Amsterdam, 
and  Munich,  in  which  Helena  is  painted  half-length,  a  full- 
length  portrait  in  the  Hermitage,  almost  full-face,  well  shows 
the  suppleness  of  Rubens's  talent,  and  the  varied  but  always 
picturesque  methods  that  he  invented  when  he  repeated  a 
subject  dear  to  him.  In  this  picture  the  young  woman 
stands  in  a  natural  attitude,  her  hands  crossed ;  she  holds  a 
feather  fan  in  one  of  them,  as  in  the  Munich  portraits. 
The  figure,  relieved  against  a  low  landscape  background, 
is  very  elegantly  posed ;  the  bluish  tones  of  the  horizon, 
the  dull  sky,  brightened  only  in  the  upper  part  by  a  glimpse 
of  blue,  and  the  black  of  the  costume — guiltless  of  orna- 
ment save  for  the  lilac  ribbons  on  the  bodice  and  sleeves — 
afford  a  wonderful  accompaniment  to  the  bright,  clear  notes 
of  the  flesh  tints.  Here  again  Rubens  painted  the  young 
woman  in  the  springtime,1  celebrating  her  beauty  anew  in 
this  masterpiece,  which  is  of  remarkable  brilliance  and  in 
fine  preservation.  It  is  only  equalled  by  two  other  large 
portraits  of  Helena,  formerly  in  the  Blenheim  Collection, 
which  now  royally  adorn  the  rooms  of  Baron  Alphonse  de 
Rothschild. 

The  repeated  absences  forced  on  Rubens  by  his  various 
1  Young  fern  shoots  and  a  tuft  of  violets  bloom  beneath  her  feet. 


90         SOME  PORTRAITS  OF  HELENA  FOURMENT 

diplomatic  missions  only  increased  his  fondness  for  the 
home  where  his  work  and  his  loved  companion  awaited 
him.  These  frequent  interruptions  made  it  impossible  for 
him  to  undertake  works  that  required  much  time,  but  he 
had  always  at  hand  a  charming  model  whom  he  could  turn 
to  account  in  his  brief  leisure  moments.  Houbraken, 
speaking  of  her  beauty,  called  her  a  new  Helen,  and  said 
that  she  was  a  valuable  possession  for  the  artist,  "  since  she 
spared  him  the  expense  of  other  models."  His  portraits  of 
her  painted  at  this  period  are  both  numerous  and  varied. 
The  finest  of  them  are  the  full  length  portraits  formerly  at 
Blenheim,  and  now  in  the  possession  of  Baron  Alphonse 
de  Rothschild.1  In  one,  Helen  turns  three-quarters  face 
to  the  spectator;  she  wears  a  velvet  hood  in  Spanish  fashion, 
and  a  black  satin  dress,  the  slashed  sleeves  ornamented  with 
lilac  ribbons.  The  bodice  is  trimmed  with  lace,  and  partly 
reveals  the  bosom ;  the  figure  set  off  by  the  architecture  of 
the  background  is  superbly  vivid  and  animated.  The 
young  girl  is  thinner,  and  seems  to  have  grown  taller; 
her  manner  is  more  assured,  as  befits  the  dignity  of  the 
mistress  of  her  famous  husband's  house.  Thus  arrayed, 
Madame  Rubens  is  about  to  go  out,  for  we  see  a  carriage 
harnessed  with  two  impatient  horses  at  the  bottom  of  the 
steps  she  is  descending.  The  facade  of  her  fine  house  is 
seen  in  perspective  by  the  side  of  the  colonnade  of  the  stair- 
case, and  farther  off  still  is  a  gabled  house ;  both  of  these 
appear  in  Harrewyn's  engraving.  Helena  is  accompanied 

1  They  were  purchased  from  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  for  the  respect- 
able sum  of  .£55,000. 


HELENA  FOURMENT 


SOME  PORTRAITS  OF  HELENA  FOURMENT         9 1 

by  a  boy  dressed  in  red,  holding  his  hat  in  his  hand.  We 
cannot  determine  if  he  is  the  little  page  of  a  similar  type 
we  have  already  seen  in  a  similar  costume  in  the  Munich 
Walk  in  the  Garden^  or,  as  M.  Max  Rooses  thinks,  one  of 
Rubens's  sons.  In  any  case,  although  the  children  of  the 
second  marriage  were  somewhat  late  to  arrive,  when  they 
came  they  followed  each  other  in  quick  succession.  The 
first,  a  girl,  Clara  Joanna,  was  baptized  on  January  18,  1632, 
in  the  church  of  St.  Jacques,  already  sacred  to  the  artist  by 
so  many  memories  ;  and,  as  if  to  prove  the  good  understand- 
ing that  still  existed  between  the  families  of  his  two  wives, 
her  godfather  was  Jan  Brant,  Isabella's  father,  and  her  god- 
mother Clara  Fourment,  Helena's  mother.  Next  came 
Frans  Rubens,  also  baptized  at  St.  Jacques,  with  the 
Marquis  d'Aytona,  Don  Francesco  de  Moncade,  and  Chris- 
tina du  Parcy  as  sponsors ;  then  Isabella  Helena,  baptized 
on  May  3,  1635  ;  and  on  March  1st,  1637,  a  second  son, 
Peter  Paul,  whom  Philip  Rubens,  the  artist's  nephew, 
stood  godfather. 

The  other  portrait  in  Baron  Alphonse  de  Rothschild's 
collection,  Rubens  and  his  Wife  teaching  one  of  their  Chil- 
dren to  walk,  was,  doubtless,  painted  somewhat  earlier ;  it  is 
finer  than  the  other,  and  is,  in  our  opinion,  one  of  Rubens's 
masterpieces.  Helena  is  in  profile ;  her  bright  hair  floats 
loosely  over  her  bare  neck,  and  she  wears  a  black  velvet 
dress  that  sets  off  her  brilliant  complexion.  In  her  left 
hand  is  a  fan,  and  with  the  other  she  holds  that  of  a  de- 
lightfully plump  pink  and  white  baby.  The  child,  dressed 
in  a  Holland  frock,  with  a  broad  blue  sash,  tries  to  walk, 


92          SOME  PORTRAITS  OF  HELENA  FOURMENT 

and,  as  if  proud  of  its  courage,  looks  up  smiling  at  the 
young  mother.  Rubens,  standing  a  little  aside,  contem- 
plates the  scene ;  he  wears  a  very  elegant  costume,  consist- 
ing of  a  violet  cloak  thrown  over  a  black  doublet  slashed 
with  white,  black  silk  breeches  and  stockings.  An  expres- 
sion of  sadness  seems  to  overshadow  his  parental  joy ;  it  is 
as  if  he  foresaw  that  his  happiness  was  not  to  be  of  long 
duration.  The  great  artist  has  grown  older,  and  although 
only  a  few  years  had  elapsed  since  he  painted  the  Walk  in 
the  Garden,  his  features  are  worn,  his  face  thin,  and  his 
complexion  faded.  The  difference  in  age  between  the  hus- 
band and  wife  begins  to  show  itself  cruelly,  inexorably. 
Nevertheless,  a  spirit  of  calm,  of  repose,  and  inward  joy 
presides  over  this  fine  work.  Everything  about  the  house- 
hold speaks  of  cheerfulness,  of  an  easy,  comfortable  life,  of 
the  wealth  and  distinction  proper  to  persons  of  importance. 
Climbing  plants  twine  round  the  pillars  of  a  portico,  with 
a  glimpse  of  blue  sky  between  ;  a  rose-bush  grows  against 
the  wall,  and  among  its  flowers  a  red  and  blue  parrot  flut- 
ters with  outspread  wings  above  a  basin  into  which  falls 
the  water  of  a  fountain.  It  is  impossible  to  imagine  a 
more  pleasing  picture,  brighter  and  more  delicately  varied 
colours,  broader  and  more  supple  execution,  a  more  ex- 
quisite feast  for  the  artist's  eye,  than  is  offered  by  this  ad- 
mirable panel,  so  lovingly  brushed  in  by  Rubens  in  the 
best  days  of  his  glorious  maturity. 

Rubens's  beloved  companion  continued  to  be  the  constant 
object  of  his  preoccupations,  and  the  chief  inspirer  of  his 
works.  He  never  tired  of  dressing  her  in  the  richest  and 


SOME  PORTRAITS  OF  HELENA  FOURMENT         93 

most  varied  costumes,  in  those  that  seemed  to  him  best 
calculated  to  display  her  beauty.  In  placing  his  establish- 
ment on  a  more  expensive  footing,  he  was  only  adopting  a 
style  of  living  suitable  to  his  position,  the  rank  he  held  at 
Antwerp  through  his  fame  as  a  painter,  his  office  of  secre- 
tary of  the  privy  council,  and  his  large  fortune. 

Occasionally,  when  fatigue  or  pain  became  excessive, 
Rubens  felt  more  imperiously  the  need  of  rest,  and  he 
sought  some  relief  from  his  sufferings  at  Steen,  glad  to  find 
there  the  well-known  scenery,  his  animals,  his  tenants,  the 
peaceful  atmosphere,  the  solitude  and  quiet  charm  of  which 
he  so  much  loved.  But  even  then  he  did  not  long  remain 
idle.  He  spent  the  summer  of  1638  there  with  his  family, 
leaving  the  care  of  his  Antwerp  house  and  its  treasures  to 
his  pupil  the  sculptor  Lucas  Faydherbe. 

But  he  had  to  adapt  his  tastes  to  his  strength,  and  only 
painted  works  of  small  dimensions,  abandoning  the  execu- 
tion of  large  canvases,  since  his  health  no  longer  permitted 
the  toil  they  entailed. 

The  wife  and  children,  who  were  always  at  hand,  sup- 
plied him  with  charming  models.  It  was  doubtless  at 
Steen  that  he  brushed  in  one  day  when  he  was  in  the  vein, 
the  spirited  portrait  of  Helena  and  her  three  children,  the 
delightful  panel  in  the  Louvre,  "  the  admirable  sketch,  the 
scarcely  indicated  dream,  left  unfinished  either  by  chance  or 
on  purpose."  The  young  woman  seated  on  a  chair,  wears 
a  felt  hat  with  large  feathers,  and  a  white  dress.  On  her 
lap  is  her  youngest  child,  an  infant  who  plays  with  a  bird 
tied  by  a  string,  and  holds  its  little  perch.  On  the  left 


94    SOME  PORTRAITS  OF  HELENA  FOURMENT 

stands  a  little  girl,  who  looks  at  her  mother ;  on  the  right  a 
younger  child — represented  fully,  no  doubt,  in  the  original 
work,  though  the  arms  are  now  cut  by  the  frame — stretches 
its  hands  towards  her.  The  individual  expression  of  the 
faces  is  intelligently  characterized  by  a  few  strokes  with 
extraordinary  life  and  freshness;  Helena's  head,  especially, 
is  softly  touched  in  with  a  caressing,  liquid  brush,  as  is  also 
her  breast,  which  is  in  a  warm,  transparent  penumbra. 
The  execution,  an  exquisite  mixture  of  vague  forms  and 
firm  touches,  reveals  Rubens's  pleasure  in  painting,  and  is  a 
sort  of  reflection  of  the  domestic  happiness  which  he  still 
enjoyed  in  his  rare  moments  of  freedom  from  pain. 


PHILIP  IV 

(Velasquez) 

CARL  JUSTI 

SINCE  the  outbreak  of  the  Catalonian  revolt  (June  9, 
1640),  a  general  desire  had  been  expressed  that  the 
King  should  proceed  to  the  seat  of  war.  As  this  was  also 
his  own  ardent  wish,  he  at  last  set  out  from  Buen  Retire 
on  April  26,  1642,  amidst  the  universal  acclamations  of  the 
public. 

But  their  hopes  were  dashed  from  the  first.  Olivares, 
following  in  the  King's  wake,  managed  to  detain  him  in 
Saragossa,  where  the  round  of  festivities  was  resumed  with 
an  "  abyss  of  expenses."  Philip  took  no  interest  in  the 
operations,  while  the  French  General  Lamotte  was  entering 
Barcelona  to  the  mutterings  of  the  ominous  cry,  "  Espana 
se  pierde  "  (Spain  is  being  lost). 

When  Perpignan  fell,  torn  with  Roussillon,  from  the 
monarchy  for  ever,  he  wept  jointly  with  Olivares,  who  on 
the  arrival  of  "  Job's  Messengers  "  craved  leave  to  throw 
himself  from  the  window.  And  when  he  really  fell,  the 
King  endeavoured  to  rouse  himself  to  a  sense  of  the 
situation.  "  In  one  matter  alone,"  he  said  in  the  State 
Council  of  January,  1643,  "  I  te^  7OU  tnat  vou 
shall  not  stand  in  my  way ;  that  is,  my  set  resolution 
to  enter  the  field  and  be  the  first  to  risk  my  blood  and 
life  for  the  welfare  of  my  vassals,  to  reawaken  their  old 


96  PHILIP  iv 

energy  which  has  greatly  fallen  off  during  the  events  of 
these  years." 

On  the  journey  to  Aragon  the  King  was  accompanied  by 
his  Court  painter ;  in  this  there  was  nothing  remarkable,  it 
being  usual  at  that  time  for  commanders  to  have  artists  at 
hand  in  order  to  take  sketches  of  sieges  and  battles. 

During  the  journey  of  1644  Velasquez  painted  at  Fraga 
a  portrait  of  the  King.  A  bundle  of  accounts  from  the 
Journals  de  Aragon  has  been  found  bearing  on  this  trans- 
action. First  of  all  the  carpenter  Pedro  Colomo  had  to 
prepare  an  easel  for  six  reals,  and  also  to  put  a  window  in 
the  Court  painter's  windowless  room.  During  the  three 
sittings,  reeds  were  spread  on  the  ground,  and  at  last  a  door 
put  in,  "  for  people  were  unable  to  get  in."  The  King 
was  kept  amused  by  his  dwarf,  El  Primo,  who  was  also 
taken  on  this  occasion.  For  both  pictures  cases  were  then 
made  to  send  them  forthwith  to  Madrid.  The  King  wore 
the  dress  in  which  he  usually  appeared  before  his  army  as 
commander-in-ch  ief. 

From  the  figure  itself  it  is  evident  that  it  was  taken  far 
from  the  atmosphere  of  the  Alcazar.  It  is  freer  than  those 
tall  figures  in  black,  which  are  perpetually  receiving  de- 
spatches, and  which  are  the  incarnation  of  unrelenting 
monotony,  of  the  weariness  of  etiquette.  To  this  effect  the 
colour  contributes  much  for  the  picture  is  all  light  and 
brightness.  The  legs  seem  to  stand  in  profile  but  the  body 
and  head  face  to  the  right ;  the  white  baton  in  the  right  hand 
is  planted  against  the  hip ;  the  elbow  of  the  left,  which  holds 
the  hat,  rests  on  the  hilt  of  the  sword,  and  curiously 


PHILIP  IV  OF  SPAIN 


PHILIP  IV  97 

enough  both  arms  are  disposed  in  a  somewhat  parallel 
position. 

The  lines  of  the  King's  features,  now  in  his  thirty-ninth 
year,  are  firmer,  the  colour  fresher  than  hitherto.  The 
otherwise  inseparable  golilla  is  here  replaced  by  a  broad 
lace  collar  falling  on  the  shoulders ;  the  hands  are  white  in 
unison  with  the  white  sleeves,  the  most  luminous  parts  of 
the  whole  picture — well-nurtured,  royal  hands,  ringless, 
but  by  no  means  "  washed  out,"  as  has  been  supposed  by 
those  unacquainted  with  the  master's  habit  of  dispensing 
with  shade  to  indicate  the  fingers. 

Philip  wears  a  rich  light  red  doublet  with  hanging 
sleeves,  the  narrow  opening  showing  the  leather  jerkin  un- 
derneath. Of  like  colour  and  also  covered  with  silver  em- 
broidery are  the  bandolier  and  hose.  The  only  patch  of 
gold  is  the  golden  fleece,  all  else — collar,  sleeves  of  jerkin 
("  pearl  tone  "),  lace  cuffs,  lace  ruffle  of  boots,  silver  sheath 
— being  white.  This  white  on  the  red  produces  the  well- 
known  effect  of  a  lighter  or  "camelia  red."  The  hat 
alone  is  black,  which  is  not  in  keeping  with  the  costume, 
and  may  probably  be  due  to  licence  on  the  part  of  the  art- 
ist, who  here  wished  to  avoid  white  on  white,  and  who 
reeded  a  dark  part  in  softening  contrast  to  the  silvery  red 
of  the  whole.  At  the  same  time  the  red  of  the  bandolier 
and  plume  on  the  red  of  the  doublet  shows  the  painter's  in- 
difference to  such  matters. 

To  all  this  must  be  added  the  full  flood  of  daylight, 
which  even  projects  an  oblique  shadow  from  the  mustachios 
on  to  the  cheek.  The  stupendous  relief  is  effected  by  the 


98  PHILIP  iv 

empty  dark  grey  surface  of  the  ground,  and  by  the  spare 
brown  shadows,  which  help  to  bring  out  the  collar,  arm  and 
hat. 

This  picture  was  still  in  the  palace  when  Palomino  wrote 
under  Philip  V.,  but  before  the  middle  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century  it  had  already  found  its  way  to  Paris.  It  probably 
passed  from  Bouchardon's  estate  to  the  Tronchin  collec- 
tion, thence  to  King  Stanislaus's  agent,  Desenfans,  and 
lastly  to  the  Dulwich  Gallery. 


LA  BELLE  FERRONNIERE 

(Leonardo  da  Vinci) 

F.  A.  GRUYER 

THE  portrait  known  by  the  name  of  La  Belle  F'erron- 
niere  represents  a  young  woman  with  brown  hair 
parted  in  the  middle,  combed  flat,  brought  down  over  the 
ears,  and  kept  in  place  by  a  black  cord  around  the  head 
having  a  diamond  at  the  centre  of  the  forehead ;  whence 
arose  the  name  ferronniere,  afterwards  given  to  every  kind 
of  hair-dressing  similar  or  analogous  to  this  one.  The  fig- 
ure, cut  across  the  middle  and  halfway  down  the  arm,  by  a 
transverse  supporting  bar,  is  clothed  with  a  red  bodice  with 
gold  stripes  and  ornamented  with  black  embroidery.  A  thin 
necklace  wound  four  times  around  the  neck  falls  down 
over  the  chest,  which  is  exposed,  the  bodice  being  cut  rather 
low  and  square.  The  head,  held  three-quarters  left,  is 
beautiful,  because  it  is  of  absolutely  correct  form  and  pro- 
portion, but  it  is  lacking  in  charm,  or  at  least  that  is  the 
way  we  consider  it.  It  has  an  expression  of  strong  will, 
and  perhaps  even  sheer  obstinacy,  and  a  suggestion  that 
can  scarcely  be  explained  of  hardness  and  scowling.  The 
features,  perfectly  in  accord  with  one  another,  are  very 
strongly  accentuated.  The  eyes,  which  are  turned  towards 
our  right,  inversely  to  the  direction  of  the  head,  are  deeply 
set,  endowed  with  fire,  and  capable  of  passion  ;  the  outer 
world  seems  to  be  reflected  darkly  in  them.  The  nose  is 


100  LA  BELLE  PERRON NIERE 

small  and  delicately  formed ;  the  mouth  is  also  small,  with 
a  sort  of  moue  that  completes  the  expression  of  the  eyes. 
The  strongly  moulded  chin  is  marked  with  a  small  dimple. 
The  cheeks  have  the  solidity  of  marble.  In  this  painting 
there  is  somewhat  of  the  quality  of  plasticity.  The  painter 
and  the  sculptor  have  mingled,  so  to  speak.  One  is  aston- 
ished rather  than  captivated ;  and  one  is  particularly  struck 
with  the  relief  and  the  singular  character  presented  by  this 
portrait.  It  imposes  itself  upon  one  with  such  authority 
that  after  having  once  looked  at  it  one  can  never  after- 
wards forget  it.  It  belongs  body  and  soul  to  a  period 
about  which  there  can  be  no  possible  mistake.  The 
Fifteenth  Century  in  Italy,  especially  the  end  of  the 
Fifteenth  Century  in  Milan,  lives  again  in  it.  Above  all,  it 
is  Leonardo  who  here  pierces  us  with  his  genius  and  all  that 
is  robust  and  spontaneous  in  it,  and  the  manner  in  which 
he  takes  possession  of  art  and  humanity  in  order  to  fashion 
them  in  his  own  way.  How  far  the  mind  may  travel 
in  imaginings  while  gazing  on  this  strange  personality ! 
What  a  crowd  of  speculations  she  has  already  given  rise 
to,  and  how  many  more  will  she  yet  prompt?  Many 
names  have  already  been  given  to  her;  but  will  anybody 
ever  know  the  true  one  ?  What  date  does  she  belong  to  ? 
How  can  we  fix  it  exactly  ?  Nothing  is  more  obscure  than 
the  chronology  of  Leonardo's  works. 

On  account  of  this  portrait  having  belonged  to  Francis  I., 
people  have  regarded  it  as  the  King's  mistress,  who  was  called 
La  Ferronniere,  after  her  husband  whose  name  was  Feron. 
Now  Feron's  wife  was  dead  before  Leonardo  arrived  in 


LA  BELLE   FERRONNIERE 


LA  BELLE  FERRONNIERE  IOI 

France.  But  what  does  that  matter!  That  legend  was 
not  imagined  till  a  century  and  a  half  at  least  after  the  death 
of  the  persons  interested.  In  1645,  Father  Dan,  in  the 
Tresor  des  merveilles  de  Fontainebleau,  gives  this  portrait  as 
that  of  the  Duchess  of  Mantua;  and  in  1709,  Bailly,  in 
the  Inventaire  general  des  tableaux  du  Roi,  says  that  it  is 
commonly  called  La  Belle  Ferronn'iere.  This  picture  at  that 
time  was  at  Versailles  in  the  picture  gallery.  So  that  this 
invention  does  not  go  back  farther  than  the  second  half  of 
the  Seventeenth  Century.  To-day,  people  regard  it  as 
Lucrezia  Crivelli,  one  of  the  mistresses  of  Louis  the 
Moor.  Leonardo  is  supposed  to  have  painted  it  in  1497, 
when  the  Duke  of  Milan,  who  had  broken  away  from  her 
in  a  momentary  fit  of  devotion,  returned  to  her  after  the 
death  of  Beatrice  D'Este.  It  was  then  that  Louis  the 
Moor  had  a  son  by  her,  who  was  the  founder  of  the  Mar- 
quisate  of  Caravaggio.  It  is  difficult  for  me  to  acquiesce 
in  this  opinion,  because  the  date  indicated  does  not  appear 
to  me  to  be  admissible.  In  1497,  Leonardo,  in  the  pleni- 
tude of  his  powers  (he  had  just  finished  the  Last  Supper 
for  the  Graces  monastery)  was  in  full  possession  of  that 
suppleness,  that  modelling  and  that  inimitable  sfumato 
which  are  at  once  the  despair  of  painters,  and  of  which  no 
trace  is  to  be  found  in  this  portrait.  If  it  were  necessary 
to  find  a  date  for  it,  I  should  go  back  much  farther  and 
look  for  it  about  the  year  1482,  towards  the  period  of  the 
arrival  of  Leonardo  in  Lombardy.  In  the  life  of  the 
painter,  and  during  his  stay  in  Milan,  this  picture  brings 
me  closer  to  the  point  of  departure  than  to  the  point  of  ar- 


102  LA  BELLE  FERRONNIERE 

rival.  Throughout  the  picture,  we  feel  the  Florentine  in- 
fluence, even  that  of  Verrocchio.  In  this,  Leonardo  has 
not  yet  been  subjected  to  the  yoke  of  the  school.  The 
harshness  of  the  contour  and  a  certain  crudity  of  colour 
belong  almost  to  a  quattro-centista,  and  are  not  the  work  of 
the  sovereign  master  he  afterwards  developed  into.  Where 
are  those  researches  and  that  great  labour  which  Leonardo 
was  soon  going  to  push  further  and  further  in  advance 
without  ever  succeeding  in  satisfying  himself?  Here  there 
is  nothing  enigmatical.  Everything  is  written  out  and  even 
underlined  with  frankness  and  rigidity.  At  that  date, 
Leonardo  did  not  strive  to  dissimulate  whatever  was  com- 
pressed in  his  design  and  what  was  vigorous  in  its  relief. 
He  saw  his  goal  very  clearly,  and,  when  he  had  once  at- 
tained that  goal,  he  stopped,  apparently  wanting  to  apply 
the  principle  put  into  the  sonnet  that  Lomazzo  has  preserved 
for  us :  "  He  who  cannot  do  what  he  wants  to  do  ought 
to  wish  for  what  he  can  do,  for  it  is  foolish  to  want  what 
is  impossible." 

(Chi  non  pub  quel  che  vuol,  quel  che  pub  voglia; 
Che  quel  che  non  si  pub,  folle  e  voter e. 
Adunque  saggio  fuomo  e  da  tenere, 
Che  da  quel  che  non  pub  suo  voler  toglia.} 

Leonardo  did  not  lose  himself  at  that  time  in  the  realms 
beyond  the  possible.  When  he  painted  a  portrait,  he  satu- 
rated himself  with  his  model.  He  saw  it  by  day,  and 
dreamed  of  it  by  night.  He  says :  "  I  have  often  ex- 
perimented when  I  found  myself  in  bed  in  the  obscurity  of 


LA  BELLE  FERRONNIERE  103 

night,  how  important  it  is  to  go  over  again  in  imagination 
the  minutest  contours  of  the  models  studied  and  drawn 
during  the  day.  By  this  means,  we  greatly  strengthen 
and  preserve  the  meaning  of  the  things  collected  in  our 
memory."  When  this  work  of  internal  assimilation  was 
once  accomplished,  Leonardo  represented  Nature  in  entire 
truthfulness,  without  attempting  to  transfigure  it,  but  im- 
pressing his  own  thoughts  and  his  own  style  upon  it.  This 
thought  and  this  style  vibrate  with  singular  intensity  in  the 
portrait  of  La  Belle  Ferronmere  and  leave  an  indestructible 
impression  upon  our  minds. 

As  for  the  name  La  Belle  Ferronniere^  it  is  probable  that, 
notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  the  erudite,  it  will  always 
remain  beneath  this  painting.  It  is  vain  to  fight  against 
legends,  they  become  rooted  in  the  memory  of  mankind 
and  nothing  can  clear  them  away.  And  then,  in  default 
of  certainty  for  another  name,  why  not  keep  this  one  ? 
The  masses  made  it,  and  are  contented  with  it.  As  for 
those  who  reason  and  search,  while  waiting  for  something 
better,  they  will  see  there  certainly  not  the  woman  whose 
husband  was  named  Feron,  but  a  woman  who  wears  on  her 
brow  a  special  jewel  the  name  of  which  she  preserves.  It 
is  true  that  it  is  she  who  has  given  its  name  to  this  jewel. 
By  a  permissible  inversion,  it  will  be  this  jewel  which,  in 
its  turn,  will  have  given  its  name  to  her. 


STUDY 
(Fragtnard) 

CH.  MOREAU-VAUTHIER 

"  TT^XTRICATE  yourself  from  the  affair  as  well  as  you 
J— '  can,  Nature  said  to  me  on  pushing  me  into  life  ! " 
Such  was  Fragonard's  reply  on  being  interrogated  re- 
garding his  start  in  life.  These  words  ring  with  a  tone 
that  is  at  once  alert,  joyous  and  careless,  which  is  Fragonard 
himself,  the  artist  of  the  facile  and  brilliant  talent,  the 
painter  of  the  pictures  brushed  in  with  such  amazing 
agility  that,  astonished  and  enchanted  with  himself,  he 
sometimes  amused  himself  by  writing  on  the  back  in  fa- 
miliar terms : 

"  Frago  painted  this  in  one  hour." 

Like  all  improvisers  whose  charm  evaporates  as  soon  as 
they  insist,  Fragonard  is  especially  remarkable  when  he  has 
not  had  time  to  lose  the  freshness  of  his  enthusiasm.  For 
connoisseurs,  his  drawings  and  sketches  in  black  and  white 
are  his  masterpieces.  His  brush  flies,  grazes  the  surface 
and  raises  on  the  canvas  vapours  that  give  birth  to  capricious 
figurines, — a  whole  world  of  grace,  fantasy  and  pleasure. 

Paul  de  Saint-Victor  has  said :  "  Fragonard's  touch  re- 
calls those  accents  which  in  certain  tongues  give  a  melodious 
sound  to  dumb  words.  His  scarcely  indicated  figures  live, 
breathe,  smile  and  enchant  us.  Their  very  indecision  has 


STUDY 


STUDY  105 

the  attraction  of  a  tender  mystery.  They  speak  in  low 
tones  and  glide  along  on  tiptoe.  They  might  be  called  the 
voluptuous  manes  of  the  Eighteenth  Century." 

His  most  celebrated  pictures  are  in  accordance  with  this 
idea  of  seductiveness  and  facility,  whether  it  is  the  Fountain 
of  Love,  Love's  Vow,  the  Contract,  or  the  popular  Bolt. 

It  is  quite  possible  in  the  present  case  that  Fragonard,  as 
is  usual  with  him,  has  produced  nothing  more  than  a  work 
of  fancy.  Perhaps  this  young  lady  was  only  half  real, 
partly  inspired  by  some  pretty  model  of  his  acquaintance, — 
perhaps  even  his  own  daughter.  Perhaps,  also,  he  may 
have  seen  a  young  woman  in  a  corner  of  his  studio  engaged 
in  turning  over  the  leaves  of  an  album  of  sketches,  and 
wished  by  means  of  this  accessory  to  show  the  cultivated 
mind  of  his  model. 

In  that  century,  woman  wielded  a  sovereign  influence  in 
art  and  literature.  Colle  writes  in  his  journal :  "  Women 
have  so  much  assumed  the  upper  hand  with  the  French 
that  the  men  are  completely  subjugated  so  that  they  no 
longer  think  nor  feel  except  after  the  women." 

The  young  Duchess  of  Chaulnes,  being  saddened  at  not 
being  able  to  understand  anything  about  the  learned  works 
of  her  husband,  and  not  being  able  to  comprehend  the  con- 
versations of  the  Academicians,  colleagues  of  the  Duke,  set 
herself  in  six  months  to  learn  everything  she  could,  and 
succeeded  in  collecting  such  a  bundle  of  odds  and  ends  that 
she  was  able  to  hold  her  own  with  all  the  Academicians,  so 
that  Madame  du  DefFand,  impatient  with  this  rage  for  sound- 
ing the  depths  of  all  things,  said  of  the  Duchess : 


IO6  STUDY 

"  She  is  always  wanting  to  know  who  has  laid  an  egg  and 
who  has  hatched." 

Some  women  like  Madame  Geoffrin,  whose  salon  was 
open  to  men  of  letters  and  artists,  finally  succeeded  in 
effacing  their  husbands.  One  day  a  stranger  asked  Madame 
Geoffrin  what  had  become  of  that  old  gentleman  who  used 
to  be  present  so  regularly  at  her  dinners,  and  who  was  never 
to  be  seen  now. 

Madame  Geoffrin  imperturbably  replied  :  u  That  was  my 
husband.  He  is  dead  now  !  " 

On  looking  at  the  smile  and  the  gaze  of  the  pretty  per- 
son painted  by  Fragonard  on  this  canvas,  we  can  have  no 
doubts  regarding  the  independence  of  this  fresh  child.  She 
does  not  look  in  the  slightest  degree  disposed  to  submit  to 
the  conjugal  yoke.  Perhaps  even,  being  more  anxious  to 
please  by  her  smiles  than  by  her  intellect,  she  is  indifferent 
to  the  weighty  matters  of  the  mind. 

Moreover,  Fragonard's  delightful  technique  makes  no 
pretence  to  superior  intentions ;  here  we  feel  only  the  ex- 
clusive joy  of  creation.  The  light  brush  spreads  the  fluid 
paste  as  it  runs.  It  is  graceful  butterfly  work,  a  coquetry, 
and  a  flirtation  with  Nature. 


LAVINIA  FENTON  AS  POLLY  PEACHUM 

(Hogarth) 

AUSTIN  DOBSON 

IN  his  autobiographical  notes  of  Hogarth,  published  by 
John  Ireland  in  1798,  there  is  a  bitter  and  disparaging 
account  of  contemporary  portrait-painting.  Vanloo,  Ho- 
garth says,  was  all  the  rage ;  and  in  defect  of  Vanloo,  the 
market  was  monopolized  by  native  and  foreign  impostors 
who,  with  the  aid  of  a  u  drapery-man  "  and  an  empiric  sys- 
tem, puffed  and  flattered  themselves  into  fashion.  "  By 
this  inundation  of  folly  and  fuss,  I  must  confess  I  was  much 
disgusted,  and  determined  to  try  if  by  any  means  I  could 
stem  the  torrent,  and  by  opposing  end  It.  I  laughed  at  the 
pretensions  of  these  quacks  in  colouring,  ridiculed  their 
productions  as  feeble  and  contemptible,  and  asserted  that  it 
required  neither  taste  nor  talents  to  excel  their  most  popu- 
lar performances."  To  this  it  was  not  unreasonably  re- 
plied that  he  had  better  prove  his  words  by  excelling  them 
without  delay ;  and  he  seems  to  have  set  about  it  with  the 
conviction  that  what  men  had  done,  man  might  do,  and 
that  William  Hogarth  was  to  the  full  as  good  as  Anthony 
Van  Dyck.  But  although  one  of  his  first  life-size  por- 
traits, that  of  Captain  Coram,  fairly  held  its  own  against  the 
Shackletons,  and  Hudsons  and  Cotes  and  Highmores,  his 
pretensions,  urged,  no  doubt,  with  an  uncompromising 
candour  which  damaged  his  cause,  found  little  favour  with 
his  colleagues  of  the  St.  Martin's  Lane  Academy.  He  was 


108          LAVINIA  FENTON  AS  POLLY  PEACHUM 

thus  tempted  to  abandon  the  only  lucrative  branch  of  his 
art,  because,  to  use  his  own  energetic  language,  it  "  brought 
the  whole  nest  of  phizmongers  on  my  back,  where  they 
buzzed  like  so  many  hornets/'  Portraits — it  was  decided 
nem.  con. — "  were  not  his  province." 

It  is  probable  that  the  scattered  biographical  memoranda 
from  which  the  above  quotations  are  derived  were  more  or 
less  manipulated  by  their  editor.  But  they  were  drawn  up 
late  in  Hogarth's  life,  and  no  doubt  reflect  with  tolerable 
accuracy  his  view  of  portrait-painting  in  so  far  as  he  him- 
self had  practised  it.  We  must,  therefore,  infer  that  his 
success,  even  in  his  own  eyes,  was  but  qualified.  "  Time 
only,"  he  says,  "  can  decide  whether  I  was  the  best  or  the 
worst  face-painter  of  the  day ;  for  a  medium  was  never  so 
much  as  suggested."  Hence  examples  of  his  work  in  this 
way  are  not  very  numerous.  Those,  indeed,  which  are  to 
be  found  in  public  collections  scarcely  amount  to  a  dozen. 
At  the  Foundling  Hospital  is  the  fine  full-length  of  Captain 
Coram,  its  brave  old  founder,  whose  honest,  sea-beaten  face, 
hard  lined  as  a  ship's  figure-head,  is  softened  by  the  painter 
into  a  kindly  dignity.  The  Royal  collection,  again,  boasts 
the  admirable  portrait  of  Garrick  and  his  wife,  which  repre- 
sents the  actor  writing  the  prologue  to  Taste^  while  the 
lady,  like  Gibber's  daughter  in  Vanloo's  picture,  stands 
archly  behind  his  chair  to  draw  his  pen  from  his  hand. 
In  the  National  Gallery  is  the  artist's  own  likeness,  which 
vies  with  Captain  Coram  for  the  honour  of  being  his  master- 
piece, and  has  made  his  Montero  cap,  his  bright-eyed,  open 
countenance,  and  his  pug-dog  Trump  familiar  as  household 


LAVINIA    FENTON  AS  POLLY  PEACHUM 


LAVINIA  FENTON  AS  POLLY  PEACHUM          109 

words.  This  was  executed  in  1745,  and  engraved  by  him- 
self in  1749.  In  the  little  green-coated  full-length  in  the 
National  Portrait  Gallery  at  South  Kensington,  where  he  is 
painting  the  Comic  Muse,  he  looks  older  and  more  worn. 
At  this  date  he  had  published  the  ill-fated  Analysis,  though 
the  worst  misfortune  of  his  latter  days,  the  painting  of 
Sigismonda,  was  still  to  come.  This  portrait  he  also  en- 
graved in  1758,  making,  however,  considerable  variations. 
With  exception  of  a  head  of  his  sister  Mary,  some  con- 
versation-pieces, and  three  portraits,  these  are  the  chief  ex- 
amples of  Hogarth's  work  as  a  "  face-painter  "  which  are  to 
be  found  in  collections  accessible  to  the  public. 

We  are,  however,  enabled  to  present  our  readers  with  the 
charming  portrait  of  Miss  Fenton  purchased  by  the  nation 
from  the  Leigh  Court  collection.  As  she  wears  the  costume 
of  "  Polly  Peachum  "  in  the  Beggar's  Opera,  the  part  in 
which  she  first  became  famous,  it  cannot  be  placed  earlier 
than  1728;  and,  though  it  may,  of  course,  have  been  pro- 
duced much  later,  probably  dates  with  the  several  replicas 
of  scenes  from  Gay's  Newgate  Pastoral,  which  Hogarth 
executed  for  Mr.  Rich,  of  Covent  Garden,  and  others. 
One  of  these  gives  a  good  idea  of  the  costumes  and  original 
cast  at  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields.  In  the  centre,  with  folded 
arms,  stands  the  Coryphaeus  of  the  highway  (Walker),  who 
apparently  has  just  finished  his  solo  : — 

"  Then  farewell,  my  love — dear  charmers,  adieu, 
Contented  I  die — 'tis  the  better  for  you. 
Here  ends  all  dispute  the  rest  of  our  lives, 
For  this  way  at  once  I  please  all  my  wives." 


110          LAVINIA  FENTON  AS  POLLY  PEACHUM 

To  the  left  Lucy  (Mrs.  Egleton)  pleads  for  him  to  Lockit ; 
to  the  right  Polly  (Miss  Fenton)  is  on  her  knees  to 
Peachum.  Among  the  favoured  lookers-on  are  the  Duke 
of  Bolton,  with  his  ribbon  and  star,  Gay,  Rich,  Anthony 
Henley,  and  a  number  of  less  well-known  notabilities. 

In  the  National  Gallery  portrait  of  Miss  Fenton  (her  real 
name  was  Beswick),  she  wears  much  the  same  costume  as 
she  does  in  Mr.  Murray's  picture,  which,  by  the  way,  was 
afterwards  engraved  by  one  William  Blake.  Her  dress  is 
green,  with  shoulder-bands  and  facings  of  brownish  red. 
She  has  dark  sparkling  eyes  and  red  lips ;  but  a  certain  want 
of  regularity  in  her  features  suggests  that  her  charm  must 
have  been  chiefly  in  her  voice  and  expression.  This  is 
confirmed  by  Joseph  Warton,  who  knew  her.  He  says  she 
never  could  have  been  called  a  beauty,  but  that  she  was 
"agreeable  and  well  made,"  and  much  admired  for  her 
conversational  powers.  When  she  made  her  great  hit  in 
Gay's  ballad-opera  (it  was  her  rendering  of  — 

"  For  on  the  rope  that  hangs  my  dear 
Depends  poor  Polly's  life," 

which  settled  the  at  first  doubtful  fate  of  the  play),  she  was 
but  eighteen.  She  had  hitherto  taken  no  higher  part  than 
that  of  Cherry  in  the  Beaux'  Stratagem^  and  was  glad  to 
come  to  Rich  for  fifteen  shillings  a  week,  a  sum  afterwards 
magnificently  doubled  on  account  of  her  success.  Her 
vogue  was,  in  truth,  enormous.  Her  portrait  was  in  all 
the  print-shops ;  her  life  was  written ;  her  jests  were  col- 
lected ;  and  she  was  so  besieged  by  admirers  that  her  friends 


LAVINIA  FENTON  AS  POLLY  PEACHUM          III 

had  to  guard  her  home.  Finally,  she  ran  away  with  the 
Duke  of  Bolton,  who  afterwards  married  her.  She  died  in 
1760.  Hogarth's  picture  of  her  was  exhibited  in  the 
British  Gallery  in  1814,  being  then  in  the  possession  of 
Mr.  George  Watson.  In  1875,  Sir  Philip  Miles,  its  last 
owner,  exhibited  it  at  Burlington  House.  It  was  en- 
graved by  C.  Apostool  in  1797,  and  again  in  1807  by 
T.  Cook. 


PORTRAITS  OF  SASKIA 

(Rembrandt) 

MALCOLM  BELL 

AMONG  the  pictures  of  the  year  1630,  and,  according 
to  M.  Michel,  even  of  1628  and  onwards  we  find  a 
series  of  portraits  of  a  fair-haired  girl  with  a  round  full  fore- 
head, and  rather  small  eyes  and  mouth,  which  Dr.  Bode 
believes  to  be  portraits  of  the  painter's  sister  Lysbeth, 
while  M.  Michel  considers  that  some  of  the  later  ones  are 
really  portraits  of  Saskia,  urging  the  objection  that  many  of 
them  were  undoubtedly  painted  after  his  removal  to  Amster- 
dam, whither  there  is  not  the  slightest  reason  to  suppose 
that  Lysbeth  accompanied  him,  what  evidence  there  is 
pointing  directly  to  the  contrary.  On  the  other  hand, 
M.  Michel  admits  that  the  type  which  is  known  to  be  Saskia 
blends  almost  indistinguishably  with  that  supposed  to  be 
Lysbeth,  and  offers  the  distinctly  dubious  explanation  that 
Rembrandt  was,  so  to  speak,  so  imbued  with  the  features 
of  his  sister  that  he  unconsciously  transferred  them  to  a 
large  extent  to  the  girl  he  loved.  If,  however,  as  we  may 
quite  reasonably  suppose,  Rembrandt  had  met  and  admired 
Saskia  during  his  first  stay  in  Amsterdam,  and  continued  to 
do  so  during  his  after  visits,  the  occurrence  of  her  features 
in  his  work  would  be  what  we  ought  to  expect. 

It  was  inevitable  that  so  great  and,  at  one  time,  so  popu- 
lar an  artist  should  sooner  or  later,  gravitate  to  the  capital 


SASKIA  HOLDING  A  PINK 


PORTRAITS  OF  SASKIA 

of  his  country  ;  for,  since  the  decay  of  Antwerp,  Amster- 
dam was  without  a  rival  in  the  world  for  prosperity — the 
head-centre  of  commerce,  the  hub  of  the  trade-universe. 

Some  time  then  in  1631  the  die  was  cast,  and  the  re- 
moval accomplished.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  he 
first  went  to  stay  or  lodge  with  Hendrick  van  Uylenborch, 
a  dealer  in  pictures  and  other  objects  of  art.  Among  his 
first  proceedings  on  his  arrival,  was  one  sufficiently  charac- 
teristic of  him  and  destined  to  be  repeated  only  too  often  in 
the  future.  He  lent  Hendrick  money,  one  thousand  florins, 
to  be  repayable  in  a  year  with  three  months'  notice.  Soon 
after,  if  not  before,  this  indiscreet  financial  operation,  as  it 
proved  later,  he  found  the  suitable  residence  he  had  mean- 
while been  seeking,  on  the  Bloemgracht,  a  canal  on  the 
west  side  of  the  town,  running  north-east  and  south-west 
between  the  Prinsen  Gracht  and  the  Lynbaan  Gracht,  in  a 
district  at  that  time  on  the  extreme  outskirts  of  the  town 
known  as  the  Garden,  from  the  floral  names  bestowed  upon 
its  streets  and  canals. 

Here  he  settled  to  his  work,  and  here  in  a  short  time  for- 
tune came  to  him.  The  enthusiasm  aroused  by  The 
Anatomy  Lesson^  when  it  was  finished  and  hung  in  its  predes- 
tined place  in  the  little  dissecting-room  or  Snijkamer  of  the 
Guild  of  Surgeons  in  the  Nes,  near  the  Dam,  was  immediate 
and  immense.  The  artist  leapt  at  once  into  the  front  rank, 
and  became  the  fashionable  portrait  painter  of  the  day. 
From  three  portraits,  other  than  those  of  his  own  circle, 
painted  in  1631,  and  ten  in  1632,  the  number  rose  to  forty 
between  that  year  and  1634 ;  or,  taking  all  the  surviving 


114  PORTRAITS  OF  SASKIA 


portraits  between  1627  an(*  I^3Ii  we  have  forty-one,  while 
from  the  five  following  years,  from  1632  to  1636,  there  are 
one  hundred  and  two.  Commissions,  indeed,  flowed  in 
faster  than  he  could  execute  them,  so  Houbraken  assures 
us,  and  not  the  infrequent  occurrence  of  a  pair  of  portraits, 
husband  and  wife,  one  painted  a  year  or  more  after  the  other, 
tends  to  confirm  this  ;  so  that  those  who  wished  to  be  im- 
mortalized by  him  had  often  to  wait  their  turn  for  months 
together,  while  all  the  wealth  and  fashion  of  the  city  flocked 
to  the  far-off  studio  in  the  outskirts,  the  more  fortunate  to 
give  their  sittings,  the  later  comers  to  put  down  their  names 
in  anticipation  of  the  future  leisure.  From  the  beginning, 
too,  pupils  came  clamouring  to  his  doors,  Govert  Flinck 
and  Ferdinand  Bol,  Philips  Koninck,  Geerbrandt  van  den 
Eeckhout,  Jan  Victors,  Leendeert  Cornelisz,  and  others 
eager  to  pay  down  their  hundred  florins  a  year,  as  Sandrart 
says  they  did,  and  work  with  and  for  the  lion  of  the 
day. 

Not  Fortune  alone,  however,  with  her  retinue  of  patrons, 
and  Fame,  with  her  train  of  pupils,  sought  him  out  :  Love, 
too,  came  knocking  at  his  portal,  and  won  a  prompt  admis- 
sion. To  the  many  admirable  works  produced  at  this  time, 
three  call  for  notice.  One  is  an  oval  picture,  belonging  to 
Herr  Haro  of  Stockholm,  representing  the  half-length  fig- 
ure of  a  girl  in  profile,  facing  to  the  left,  fair-haired,  and 
pleasant-looking  rather  than  pretty  ;  the  second,  in  the 
Museum  of  Stockholm,  shows  us  the  same  girl  in  much  the 
same  position  but  differently  dressed  ;  while  the  third,  in 
the  collection  of  Prince  Liechtenstein  at  Vienna,  is  a  less 


PORTRAITS  OF  SASKIA  115 

pleasing  representation  of  her  in  full  face,  wherein  the  tend- 
ency to  stoutness  and  the  already  developing  double  chin 
detract  from  the  piquancy  of  her  expression  and  make  her 
look  more  than  her  actual  age,  which  we  know  to  have 
been  twenty  at  the  time  that  these  were  painted. 

We  have  heard  her  name  casually  already,  in  connection 
with  Rembrandt's  marriage, — for  this  is  Saskia  van  Uylen- 
borch,  a  cousin  of  his  friend  Hendrick,  which  fact  may 
haply  have  had  something  to  do  with  that  ready  loan  of  a 
thousand  florins.  Saskia  was  born  in  1612,  at  Leeu warden, 
the  chief  town  of  Friesland  in  the  north,  across  the 
Zuider  Zee,  and  at  the  time  when  Rembrandt  met  her  was 
an  orphan,  her  mother,  Sjukie  Osinga,  having  died  in  1619, 
and  her  father,  Rombertus,  a  distinguished  lawyer  in  his 
native  place,  in  1624.  The  family  left  behind  was  a  large 
one,  consisting  besides  Saskia,  of  three  brothers,  two  being 
lawyers  and  one  a  soldier,  and  five  sisters,  all  married,  who, 
as  soon  as  the  worthy  Rombertus  was  laid  to  rest,  seem  to 
have  begun  wrangling  among  themselves  concerning  the 
estate ;  the  quarrel,  chiefly,  as  it  appears,  being  sustained 
by  the  several  brothers-in-law,  and  leading  shortly  to  an  ap- 
peal to  law. 

Among  the  less  close  relations  was  a  cousin  Aaltje,  who 
was  married  to  Jan  Cornelis  Sylvius,  a  minister  of  the  Re- 
formed Church,  who,  coming  from  Friesland,  had  settled  in 
Amsterdam  in  1610,  and  with  them  Saskia  was  in  the  habit 
of  coming  to  stay.  Where  and  when  Rembrandt  first  met 
her  we  do  not  know.  Probably  at  the  house  of  Hendrick ; 
it  may  have  been  in  1628,  or  earlier,  for,  if  the  acquaintance 


Il6  PORTRAITS  OF  SASKIA 

began  in  1631,  it  ripened  rapidly.  Without  accepting  un- 
hesitatingly all  M.  Michel's  identifications  of  her,  not  only 
in  portraits,  but  in  subjects,  such  as  that  one  which  is 
known  as  The  'Jewish  Bride y  now  in  the  collection  of  Prince 
Liechtenstein,  there  is  no  question  that  she  sat  to  him 
several  times  during  the  two  years  1632  and  1633.  The 
attraction  was  mutual ;  Rembrandt  soon  became  a  welcome 
visitor  to  the  Sylvius  household,  and,  in  token,  doubtless 
of  the  kindness  and  hospitality  which  he  there  met  with,  he 
etched,  in  1634,  a  portrait  of  the  good  old  minister. 

The  course  of  true  love  in  this  case  ran  smoothly  enough  ; 
the  young  people  soon  came  to  an  understanding ;  no  dif- 
ficulties were  raised  by  Sylvius,  who  acted  as  Saskia's  guard- 
ian ;  and  the  marriage  was  only  deferred  till  Saskia  came  of 
age.  The  union,  indeed,  from  a  worldly  point  of  view,  was 
unexceptionable.  Saskia,  it  is  true,  was  of  a  good  family, 
while  Rembrandt  sprang  from  the  lower  middle  class,  but 
he  had  already  carved  out  for  himself  a  rank  above  all  pedi- 
grees. Saskia  was  twenty,  and  he,  with  all  his  fame,  was 
only  twenty-six.  The  wedding  then  was  decided  on,  and 
Rembrandt,  painting  Saskia  again,  put  into  her  hands  a  sprig 
of  rosemary,  at  that  time  in  Holland  an  emblem  of  be- 
trothal. It  was  possibly  even  fixed  for  some  date  late  in 
1633,  when  Saskia  would  have  passed  her  twenty-first  birth- 
day. 

There  was  nothing,  when  Saskia  was  once  of  age,  to  ne- 
cessitate longer  delay  in  the  completion  of  his  happiness, 
but  in  the  autumn  she  was  peremptorily  called  away  to 
Franeker,  a  town  in  Friesland.,  between  Leeuwarden  and 


PORTRAITS  OF  SASKIA  117 

the  sea,  where  her  sister  Antje,  the  wife  of  Johannes  Mac- 
covius,  professor  of  Theology,  was  lying  ill,  and  where,  on 
November  the  ninth,  she  died.  This  untoward  occurrence 
put  an  end  to  the  possibility  of  an  immediate  marriage,  and 
Saskia  went  to  spend  the  winter  with  another  sister,  Hiskia, 
who  was  married  to  Gerrit  van  Loo,  a  secretary  of  the  gov- 
ernment, and  lived  at  Sainte  Anne  Parrochie,  in  the  ex- 
treme north-west  of  Friesland  ;  while  Rembrandt,  discon- 
tentedly enough,  no  doubt,  toiled  through  the  long  winter 
months  in  his  studio  at  Amsterdam. 

In  the  spring  of  1634,  however,  the  sunshine  returned 
again  into  his  life,  and  he  commemorated  the  advent  ap- 
propriately enough,  by  painting  the  bringer  of  it  in  the 
guise  of  Flora.  The  period  of  mourning  was  now  at  an 
end,  and  some  time  in  May,  probably,  Saskia  once 
more  returned  to  Hiskia's  to  make  preparation  for  the 
approaching  day ;  while  Sylvius,  as  her  representative,  and 
Rembrandt  began  to  arrange  the  more  formal  business 
matters. 

On  June  loth,  as  recorded  by  Dr.  Scheltema,  Sylvius,  as 
the  bride's  cousin,  engaged  to  give  full  consent  before  the 
third  asking  of  the  banns;  while  Rembrandt,  on  his  part, 
promised  to  obtain  his  mother's  permission.  Whether  he 
merely  wrote  to  Leyden  for  this,  or  whether,  as  is  more 
probable,  he  went  in  person,  we  do  not  know ;  but  in  either 
case  he  wasted  no  time,  for  on  the  fourteenth  he  produced 
the  necessary  documents,  and  prayed  at  the  same  time  that 
the  formal  preliminaries  might  be  cut  as  short  as  possible. 
His  appeal  was  evidently  received  with  favour,  for  eight 


Il8  PORTRAITS  OF  SASKIA 

days  later,  on  June  22nd,  at  Bildt,  in  the  presence  of  Gerrit 
and  Hiskia  van  Loo,  he  was  duly  married,  first  by  the  civil 
authorities,  and  afterwards  by  the  minister  Rudolphe  Her- 
mansz  Luinga  in  the  Annakerk. 

As  far  as  domestic  happiness  depending  upon  their  rela- 
tions with  one  another  went,  there  is  every  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  this  union  was  a  thoroughly  successful  one ;  but 
we  cannot  help,  nevertheless,  feeling  some  doubts  as  to 
whether  it  was  altogether  the  best  that  might  have  been  for 
Rembrandt.  Frank  and  joyous,  but  strong-willed,  not  to 
say  obstinate,  recklessly  generous  and  prodigal,  and  without 
a  thought  for  what  the  future  might  bring  forth,  he  needed 
some  firm  yet  tender  hand  to  check,  without  seeming  too 
much  to  control  his  lavish  impulses.  Impossible  to  drive, 
yet  easy  enough  to  lead,  a  giant  in  his  studio,  a  child  in  his 
business  relations  with  the  world  outside  its  doors,  he 
should  have  found  some  steady  practical  head  to  regu- 
late his  household  affairs  and  introduce  some  order  and 
economy  into  his  haphazard  ways.  Such,  unfortunately 
for  him  in  the  end,  Saskia  was  not.  Devoted  to  him,  she 
yielded  in  everything,  and  his  will  was  her  law.  As  her 
love  for  him  led  her  to  let  him  do  always  as  he  would,  so 
his  passion  for  her  led  him  to  shower  costly  gifts  upon  her 
— pearls  and  diamonds,  gold-work  and  silver-work,  bro- 
cades and  embroideries ;  nothing  that  could  serve  to  adorn 
her  was  too  good  or  too  expensive.  She  would  have  been 
happy  in  plain  homespun,  as  long  as  he  was  there  ;  but  to 
give  largely  was  the  nature  of  the  man,  and  the  very  for- 
tune that  she  brought  with  her  was  an  evil,  even  at  the 


PORTRAITS  OF  SASKIA  119 

time,  in  that  it  led  him  to  further  extravagances  while  in 
the  future  it  proved  a  still  more  serious  one. 

One  birth  and  three  deaths  mark  the  year  1640.  The 
first,  of  another  daughter,  on  July  2Qth,  who  was  also 
christened  Cornelia,  the  elder  child  bearing  that  name  hav- 
ing died  in  the  meantime.  The  name,  however,  seems  to 
have  been  an  ill-omened  one,  for  its  second  bearer  did  not 
survive  a  month,  its  burial  being  recorded  in  the  Zuider- 
kerk  on  August  25th.  Of  the  other  deaths  the  first  was 
that  of  an  aunt  of  Saskia,  who  was  probably  also  her  god- 
mother, as  she  bore  the  same  name,  and  certainly  left  her 
some  property,  since  Ferdinand  Bol  was  sent  on  August 
3Oth  to  Leeuwarden  with  formal  authority  to  take  posses- 
sion on  her  behalf.  The  other  death  must  have  been  to 
Rembrandt  at  any  rate  a  far  heavier  blow,  for  by  it  he  lost 
in  September  or  October,  his  mother,  to  whom  he  was  cor- 
dially attached,  and  from  whom  his  residence  in  Amster- 
dam had  only  partially  separated  him,  since  we  know  by 
various  portraits,  painted  subsequent  to  1631,  that  either  he 
visited  her  or  she  him  with  considerable  frequency. 

At  this  very  time  he  was  cheerfully  accepting  security 
for  considerable  sums  of  money  lent,  in  addition  to  the  orig- 
inal one  thousand  florins  to  Hendrick  van  Uylenborch; 
and  in  later  years,  when  his  affairs  came  to  be  inquired 
into,  Lodewyck  van  Ludick  and  Adriaen  de  Wees,  dealers 
both,  swore  that  between  1640  and  1650  Rembrandt's  col- 
lections, without  counting  the  pictures,  were  worth  11,000 
florins,  while  a  jeweller  Jan  van  Loo,  stated  that  Saskia  had 
two  large  pear-shaped  pearls,  two  rows  of  valuable  pearls 


120  PORTRAITS  OF  SASKIA 

forming  a  necklace  and  bracelets,  a  large  diamond  in  a  ring, 
two  diamond  earrings,  two  enameled  bracelets,  and  various  ar- 
ticles of  plate.  Finally,  Rembrandt  also,  at  a  later  date,  esti- 
mated that  his  estate  at  the  time  of  Saskia' s  death  amounted 
to  40,750  florins ;  and  though  the  estimate  was  made  under 
circumstances  calculated  to  incline  him  to  exaggerate  rather 
than  diminish  the  amount,  it  must  be  considered  as  approxi- 
mately correct. 

Poor  Saskia  was  not  destined  to  enjoy  much  longer  her 
plate  and  jewellery.  Death  having  entered  the  family,  was 
thenceforth  busy.  Titia  died  at  Flushing  on  June  i6th, 
1641 ;  and  Saskia  herself,  after  the  birth  of  Titus  in  Sep- 
tember of  that  year,  possibly  never  enjoyed  really  good 
health  again.  By  the  following  spring  she  was  unmistak- 
ably failing,  and  at  nine  in  the  morning  of  June  5th,  1642, 
she  made  her  will.  She  was  not  even  then  without  hope 
of  recovery  for  there  are  express  stipulations  as  to  any 
further  children  she  might  bear,  but  the  pitiful  irregularity 
of  her  signature  at  the  end  of  the  document  shows  how 
forlorn  this  hope  was ;  and,  in  fact,  she  died  within  the 
following  fortnight  and  was  buried  on  the  igth  of  June  in 
the  Oudekerk,  where  Rembrandt  subsequently  purchased 
the  place  of  her  sepulture. 

Upon  what  this  loss  must  have  meant  to  Rembrandt, 
with  his  affectionate  nature  and  almost  morbid  devotion  to 
home-life  I  need  not  dwell,  nor  did  Fate  rest  content  with 
dealing  him  this  single  blow.  The  great  picture,  which 
forms  the  chief  ornament  of  the  Rijks  Museum  at  Amster- 
dam, The  Sortie  of  the  Company  of  Banning  Cocq^  better 


PORTRAITS  OF  SASKIA  121 

known  under  the  inaccurate  title  of  The  Night-Watch, 
was  no  sooner  completed,  in  the  course  of  the  same  year, 
than  it  aroused  a  storm  of  vituperative  criticism. 

Once  satisfactorily  established  in  Amsterdam,  Rembrandt 
increased  his  annual  production  marvellously.  The  number 
of  pictures  known,  or  believed  to  belong  to  each  of  the  four 
preceding  years,  are,  in  succession,  four,  nine,  twelve,  and 
twenty,  the  numbers  for  the  four  succeeding  years  are  re- 
spectively forty-two,  thirty,  twenty-six  and  twenty-seven ; 
or,  taking  the  average  of  each  period,  we  find  that  the  first 
would  give  a  little  more  than  eleven  pictures  per  annum, 
the  second,  very  nearly  thirty,  1632,  in  especial,  when  he 
was  new  to  Amsterdam,  was  a  year  of  extraordinary  energy. 

So  engaged  was  he  on  portraiture,  that  he  only  found 
time  for  three  small  figure  subjects,  if,  indeed,  they  were 
painted  that  year,  for  none  is  dated. 

Portraits  again  took  up  much  of  his  time  in  1633,  among 
them  the  two  companions  to  the  portraits  of  the  year  before 
and  another  pair,  Willem  Burchgraeff,  at  Dresden,  and 
Margaretha  van  Bilderbeecq  his  wife,  in  Frankfort.  The 
painter's  masterpiece,  however,  in  matrimonial  groups  is 
the  Shipbuilder  and  his  Wife  at  Buckingham  Palace. 

There  are  thirteen  other  signed  portraits  of  that  year, 
including  one  of  Jan  Herman  Krul,  at  Cassel,  two  of 
Saskia — one  at  Dresden ;  one  called,  however,  Lysbeth 
van  Rijn,  which  belonged  to  the  late  Baroness  Hirsch- 
Garenth — and  two  of  himself,  one,  the  oval  portrait  in  the 
Louvre,  and  the  other  in  the  collection  of  M.  Warneck  at 
Paris. 


122  PORTRAITS  OF  SASKIA 

There  are  eighteen  works  dated  1634,  and  no  less  than 
seven  of  them  are,  or  are  called  Portraits  of  Himself.  One 
at  the  Louvre  and  two  at  Berlin  are  unmistakably  so,  and 
one  now  in  America,  a  companion  to  a  Portrait  of  Saskia, 
would  seem  to  be ;  but  the  portrait  of  Rembrandt  as  an 
Officer,  at  the  Hague,  which,  however,  bears  no  date,  and 
one  in  a  helmet  at  Cassel,  bear  only  the  most  general  re- 
semblance to  him.  He  furthermore  painted  a  portrait  of 
Saskia  disguised  as  Flora,  called  The  Jewish  Bride,  in  the 
Hermitage  at  St.  Petersburg,  a  very  similar  picture  in  the 
collection  of  M.  Schloss,  Paris,  and  a  third  at  Cassel. 


PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN 

(Holbein) 

SIR  WALTER  ARMSTRONG 

THE  Holbein  we  reproduce  is  thus  described :  A 
beardless  young  man  stands  against  a  table  covered 
with  a  green  cloth  and  looks  out  at  the  spectator.  A  round 
black  hat  rests  upon  his  short  hair ;  over  his  coat  of  reddish 
violet  silk  lies  a  black  furred  mantle ;  a  bit  of  his  shirt 
shows  in  front.  The  left  hand  grasps  a  glove,  the  right 
rests  on  the  table  and  holds  a  half-open  book.  Rings 
adorn  both  hands.  To  the  right  stands  a  desk.  Upon  the 
grey  background  appears  this  inscription :  "  ANNO.  DNI. 
1541.  ETATIS.  SUJE,  28."  In  design  this  is  one  of  the 
most  successful  of  all  Holbein's  portraits.  Nothing  could 
well  be  simpler,  nothing  could  be  more  complete  and  co- 
herent. The  turn  of  the  body,  the  outlook  of  the  face, 
the  action  of  the  hands,  the  placing  of  every  line,  of  every 
tint,  of  every  step  from  light  to  shadow,  lead  to  that  abso- 
lute unity  which  is  the  aim  of  art.  The  flesh  tones  are 
unusually  brown,  a  detail  which  has  induced  some  critics  to 
refer  the  picture  to  Holbein's  early  maturity — which  was 
marked  by  a  tendency  to  brown  carnations — in  spite  of  the 
date  upon  the  panel.  Few  painters,  however,  if  any,  have 
given  so  much  attention  to  their  sitters'  complexions  as 
Holbein.  A  notable  instance  is  to  be  seen  in  our  Am- 
bassadors in  the  National  Gallery.  There  he  has  clearly 


124  PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN 

taken  the  utmost  pains  to  render  the  peculiar  sallowness  of 
the  less  important  of  his  two  employers.  The  variation  in 
his  complexions  is  much  more  likely  due  to  a  change  in  the 
class  and  nationality  of  his  patrons  than  to  modifications 
of  his  own  practise.  When  he  first  arrived  in  London,  he 
found  employment  chiefly  among  his  fellow-countrymen, 
the  embrowned  South  German  members  of  the  Steelyard. 
Afterwards  he  became  painter  to  the  Court,  and  had  to  de- 
vote his  skill  to  the  imitation  of  the  well-protected  cuticles 
of  high-born  English  ladies  and  their  lords.  The  Vienna 
portrait  represents  the  latest  stage  of  his  evolution.  There 
is  a  play  and  freedom  about  it  not  to  be  found  in  the  thor- 
ough but  more  stiffly  conceived  works  of  twelve  years 
before.  Nothing  is  known  to  the  young  man's  identity ; 
no  tradition,  even,  has  survived  to  our  day. 

Holbein's  three  sojourns  in  this  country  lasted  from  1526 
to  1528,  from  1532  to  1538,  and  from  1539  to  his  death  in 
1543.  It  has  lately  been  contended,  not  for  the  first  time, 
that  in  1533,  he  was  away  from  England  in  Germany.  It 
may  be  as  well,  perhaps,  to  note  the  evidence  which  refutes 
that  idea,  especially  as  it  has  some  bearing  on  the  question 
which  still  excites  so  much  interest,  that  of  the  identity  of 
our  Ambassadors.  In  1532,  the  Burgomaster  of  Basle, 
Jacob  Meier,  had  addressed  the  following  letter  to  "  Master 
Hans  Holbein,  the  Painter,  now  in  England  "  :  — 

"  We,  Jacob  Meier,  Burgomaster,  and  the  Council  of 
the  city  of  Basle,  send  greeting  to  our  dear  citizen,  Hans 
Holbein,  and  let  you  herewith  know  that  it  would  please  us 


PORTRAIT  OF  A    YOUNG  MAN 


PORTRAIT  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN  125 

if  you  would  come  home  as  soon  as  you  can.  In  that  case, 
in  order  that  you  may  the  more  easily  stay  at  home  and 
support  your  wife  and  children,  we  will  provide  you  with 
thirty  pieces  of  money  per  annum  until  we  are  able  to  do 
better  for  you.  We  have  wished  to  tell  you  this,  in  order 
that  you  may  do  what  we  desire.  Sept.  2,  Anno  32." 

There  seems  to  be  abundant  evidence  that  Holbein  did 
not  obey  this  summons.  The  portraits  of  German  mer- 
chants, members  of  the  Stahlhof,  or  Steelyard,  cover  the 
years  1532-1536.  They  possess  certain  features  in  com- 
mon. They  are  mostly  half-lengths.  Accessories  and  im- 
plements are  introduced  and  painted  with  great  care.  As  a 
rule,  the  name  of  the  sitter  is  given  in  German,  on  the 
backs  of  letters,  with  his  address  in  the  London  steelyard. 
The  sitter's  age,  the  date  of  the  painting,  a  motto,  and  a 
verse  or  two  in  Latin,  are  often  added,  and  in  no  case  does 
the  painter  sign  his  own  name.  These  portraits,  then,  may 
fairly  be  called  a  series,  and  some  of  the  finest  among  them 
belong  to  the  year  in  dispute.  Is  it  not  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  they  were  all  painted  in  London,  one  commission 
leading  to  another  ? 


LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA 

(Sandro  Botticelli) 

JULIA  CARTWRIGHT 

BOTH  as  the  favourite  pupil  of  Fra  Filippo  Lippi,  that 
spoiled  child  of  the  Medici,  whose  talents  had  been 
held  in  such  high  esteem  by  Cosimo  and  his  sons,  and  as 
the  skilled  assistant  of  Antonio  Pollaiuolo,  who  was  so  con- 
stantly employed  by  three  generations  of  the  house  of 
Medici,  Sandro  needed  no  introduction  to  Lorenzo's  notice. 
Already,  towards  the  close  of  1473,  l^e  master  had  received 
an  order  to  paint  a  St.  Sebastian  for  this  august  patron.  In 
the  following  year,  after  he  had  returned  from  his  unsuc- 
cessful visit  to  Pisa,  he  received  a  new  commission  from 
the  Magnifico's  brother,  Giuliano  dei  Medici. 

The  second  son  of  Piero  was  four  years  younger  than 
Lorenzo,  and  was  endowed  with  those  personal  attractions 
which  his  elder  brother  lacked.  Tall  and  handsome,  active 
and  muscular,  he  excelled  in  all  knightly  exercises,  in 
riding  and  wrestling,  throwing  the  spear  and  tilting.  While 
Lorenzo  was  decidedly  plain  with  weak  eyes,  a  broad  nose, 
large  mouth  and  sallow  complexion,  Giuliano's  fine  black 
eyes,  curling  dark  hair,  olive  skin  and  animated  expression 
gave  him  a  distinctly  attractive  and  picturesque  appearance. 
Although  inferior  to  Lorenzo  in  ability  and  intellect,  he  in- 
herited the  refined  taste  of  his  family,  was  fond  of  music 
and  painting,  and  wrote  poetry  which  Poliziano  describes 


LA   BELLA    SIMONETTA 


LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA  127 

as  full  of  thought  and  feeling.  From  his  boyhood  Giuliano 
had  been  the  darling  of  the  people,  and  his  reckless  cour- 
age in  the  chase  or  tournament,  his  gay  manners  and  cour- 
teous bearing  made  him  a  favourite  with  all  classes.  Polizi- 
ano  and  Machiavelli  both  teil  us  that  he  was  the  idol  of  the 
Florentines,  and  Paolo  Giovio  speaks  of  him  as  the  prince 
and  leader  of  the  gilded  youth  of  his  day.  But  he  was 
always  loyal  and  affectionate  to  Lorenzo,  and  no  shadow 
of  jealousy  or  suspicion  ever  seems  to  have  clouded  the  ex- 
cellent understanding  that  existed  between  the  brothers. 
While  the  elder  of  the  two  devoted  his  time  and  attention 
to  the  management  of  public  affairs,  the  younger  hunted 
and  jousted  and  wrote  verses  in  praise  of  fair  ladies,  and 
took  a  leading  part  in  those  pageants  and  amusements  which 
delighted  the  eyes  of  Florence. 

As  Lorenzo's  Tournament  had  been  given  in  fulfilment 
of  a  promise  which  he  made  to  the  beautiful  Lucrezia 
Donati,  when  she  gave  him  a  wreath  of  violets  at  Braccio 
Martelli's  wedding-feast,  so  now  Giuliano  held  a  Giostra 
in  honour  of  another  fair  lady,  "  la  bella  Simonetta,"  the 
young  wife  of  his  friend  Marco  Vespucci.  This  daughter 
of  a  noble  Genoese  family,  who  at  sixteen  became  the  bride 
of  Piero  Vespucci's  son,  one  of  the  most  faithful  followers 
of  the  Medici,  had  inspired  the  handsome  Giuliano  with  a 
romantic  devotion,  similar  to  that  of  Dante  for  Beatrice  or 
of  Petrarch  for  Laura.  He  composed  verses  in  praise  of 
her  beauty  and  goodness,  invoked  her  name  when  he  rode 
in  the  lists,  and  made  her  the  object  of  the  Platonic  passion 
which  Poliziano  celebrates  in  his  famous  poem.  Giuliano's 


128  LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA 

Tournament  was  held  on  the  28th  of  January,  1475,  on  the 
same  Piazza  di  Santa  Croce  where  Lorenzo's  Giostra  had 
taken  place  six  years  before.  Then  Piero  had  been  alive 
but  now  his  two  sons  were  the  representatives  of  this  illus- 
trious house,  and  the  stately  pageant  which  gratified  the 
hearts  of  the  Florentines,  afforded  a  fitting  opportunity  for 
celebrating  the  glories  of  the  Medici  brothers  and  their  ac- 
cession to  supreme  power. 

Nothing  which  could  add  beauty  or  splendour  to  the 
show  was  neglected.  Signer  Poggi  has  recently  published 
a  document,  which  he  discovered  in  the  Magliabecchiana 
Library,  giving  several  interesting  details  of  the  combatants 
who  took  part  in  the  Giostra,  and  of  the  armour  which  they 
wore  and  the  banners  and  devices  that  were  borne  before 
them.  Seven  youths  of  the  noblest  families  of  Florence, 
clad  in  richest  apparel,  resplendent  with  silks  and  jewels, 
with  pearls  and  rubies,  entered  the  lists  that  day ;  Pagolo 
Antonio  Soderini,  Piero  Guicciardini,  the  cousin  of  the  his- 
torian, who  left  his  books,  sorely  against  his  inclination,  and 
joined  in  the  tournay,  at  Lorenzo  and  Giuliano's  urgent 
entreaty,  Benedetto  dei  Nerli,  Luigi  della  Stufa,  Piero  degli 
Alberti,  and  Giovanni  Morelli.  Each  rider  was  accom- 
panied by  twenty-two  youths  in  jewelled  armour,  and  fol- 
lowed by  a  troop  of  men-at-arms,  while  a  page  in  sumptuous 
attire  bore  a  standard  with  his  chosen  device  before  him. 
As  in  Lorenzo's  tournament,  each  cavalier  had  the  image 
of  his  lady-love  represented  on  his  banner,  so  on  this  occa- 
sion Giuliano  and  his  rivals  each  had  the  effigy  of  his  mis- 
tress borne  before  him.  The  best  artists  in  the  city  were 


LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA  1 29 

employed,  and  there  was  quite  a  stir  in  the  workshops  along 
the  banks  of  the  Arno.  Giuliano's  armour  and  helmet  were 
exquisitely  wrought  by  Michele  Bandinelli  of  Gaiuole,  a 
talented  goldsmith  who  served  the  Medici  during  many 
years,  and  whose  wife,  Smeralda,  had  her  portrait  painted 
by  one  of  Botticelli's  assistants  about  this  time.  A  still 
more  illustrious  artist,  Andrea  del  Verrocchio,  painted  the 
banner  of  another  of  the  competitors,  Giovanni  Morelli. 
The  figure  which  he  was  desired  to  represent  was  that  of 
a  maiden  robed  in  white  on  a  crimson  ground,  with  a 
"  spiritello  "  or  winged  sprite — the  boy  Cupid — armed  with 
his  bow,  and  holding  a  pot  of  flowers  in  his  hand,  standing 
on  the  rock  above.  Other  ladies  in  the  forms  of  nymphs 
and  goddesses,  clad  in  bright  and  varied  hues,  and  bearing 
the  mottoes  of  the  respective  knights,  were  represented  on 
the  different  banners.  Only  Piero  Guicciardini,  who  pre- 
ferred humanist  studies  to  the  society  of  fair  ladies,  chose 
Apollo  slaying  the  Python  for  his  device.  But  Giuliano's 
mistress  was  represented  in  a  singularly  beautiful  and  elab- 
orate style. 

"  The  banner  of  Giuliano,"  we  read,  "  was  of  blue 
taffeta  (canvas),  with  the  rising  sun  in  the  heavens,  and  in 
the  centre  a  large  figure  of  Pallas,  wearing  a  vest  of  fine 
gold,  a  white  robe  and  blue  buskins,  with  her  feet  resting 
on  the  flames  of  burning  olive  branches.  On  her  head  she 
wore  a  helmet,  under  which  her  rippling  locks  flowed  loose 
on  the  breeze.  In  her  right  hand  she  held  a  jousting  lance, 
and  in  her  left  the  shield  of  Medusa.  Her  eyes  were  fixed 
on  the  sun,  and  in  the  meadow  of  flowers  where  she  stood, 


130  LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA 

was  the  god  of  love,  bound  by  golden  cords  to  the  trunk  of 
an  olive  tree.  On  the  boughs  of  the  tree  was  written  this 
motto  :  "  La  sans  pareille." 

This  description  of  Giuliano' s  banner  agrees  closely  with 
the  imagery  of  Poliziano's  famous  verses  in  honour  of  the 
Giostra.  The  poet  speaks  of  the  dream  which  comes  to 
Giuliano  in  his  sleep,  and  tells  us  how  the  hero  sees  a 
vision  of  his  lady,  Simonetta,  wearing  the  armour  of 
Minerva  and  the  shield  of  Medusa,  while  behind  her  he 
sees  Cupid  bound  to  the  green  column  of  Minerva's  happy 
plant. 

"  Pargli  veder  feroce  la  sua  donna     .      .     . 
Legar  Cupido  alia  verde  colonna 
Delia felice pianta  di  Minerva" 

And,  in  his  verse,  Cupid  bids  Giuliano  look  up  at  the  rising 
sun  on  his  lady's  banner,  the  emblem  of  the  glory  which  he 
is  to  win  in  the  fight : 

"  Alza  gll  of chit  alza  Julio  a  quello  fiamma 
Che  come  un  sol  col  suo  splendor  /'  adombra" 

But  for  us,  it  is  of  still  greater  interest  to  find  how 
exactly  the  description  of  the  banner  corresponds  with 
Vasari's  statement,  that  "  Botticelli  painted  a  life-sized 
figure  of  Pallas  standing  on  a  device  of  burning  branches, 
in  the  Medici  Palace."  From  this  we  may  safely  conclude 
that  Giuliano's  banner  bearing  the  figure  of  his  mistress  in 
the  form  of  Pallas  was  painted  by  Sandro  Botticelli  in  the 
last  months  of  1474.  That  it  was  preserved  among 
Lorenzo's  most  precious  treasures  we  further  learn  from  the 


LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA  13! 

following  entry  in  an  Inventory  of  the  works  of  art  in  the 
Medici  Palace,  that  was  taken  after  the  Magnifico's  death 
in  1492,  and  copied  in  a  similar  list  bearing  the  date  of 
1512  :  "In  the  room  of  Piero  a  cloth  (panno)  set  in  a  gold 
frame,  about  four  braccia  high  by  two  wide,  bearing  a  figure 

of  Pa \Pallas\  with  a  burning  shield  and  an  arrow,  by 

the  hand  of  Sandro  da  Botticelli." 

This  Pallas  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  picture  of 
Pallas  Subduing  the  Centaur  by  Sandro's  hand  that  was 
painted  some  years  later,  after  Lorenzo's  return  from 
Naples,  to  celebrate  the  triumph  of  the  Medici  over  their 
enemies,  and  was  discovered  in  1895  by  Mr.  Spence  in  the 
Pitti  Palace.  For,  as  M.  Miintz  proceeds  to  show,  this 
work  of  Botticelli's  is  mentioned  in  two  other  Inventories 
of  the  contents  of  the  Medici  Palace,  which  were  taken  at 
a  later  period,  and  in  both  cases  is  described  as  Minerva 
and  a  Centaur.  The  word  panno,  in  the  entry  of  1512, 
clearly  refers  to  the  banner  carried  in  front  of  Giuliano  in 
the  Giostra,  and  this  conclusion  is  further  borne  out  by  the 
following  entry  which  comes  just  below  in  the  same  In- 
ventory :  "  A  gilded  jousting-helmet  with  a  figure  of 
Cupid  bound  to  a  tree  of  laurel  or  olive." 

The  helmet  in  question  was,  no  doubt,  that  which  was 
worn  by  Giuliano  himself  in  the  Tournament,  which  is 
said  to  have  been  a  marvel  of  the  goldsmith's  art.  Unfor- 
tunately the  banner  has  shared  the  fate  which  has  befallen 
the  great  majority  of  the  works  that  were  painted  by  Sandro 
for  the  Medici  and  preserved  for  several  generations  in  the 
palace  of  the  Via  Larga, 


132  LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA 

The  Giostra  was  celebrated  with  triumphant  success, 
Giuliano  made  a  splendid  figure  as  he  rode  into  the  lists 
that  day  in  his  flashing  armour,  mounted  on  the  warhorse 
"  Orso,"  which  had  been  presented  to  him  by  Constanzo 
Sforza,  the  lord  of  Pesaro.  There,  before  the  eyes  of  his 
adored  mistress,  the  gallant  youth  vanquished  all  his  rivals, 
and  bore  off  the  prize,  amidst  the  acclamations  of  the 
assembled  multitudes.  Botticelli's  share  in  the  day's 
festivity  naturally  brought  him  into  close  relations  with 
the  Medici  brothers,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  future 
commissions  which  he  received  from  Lorenzo  and  the 
members  of  his  immediate  circle.  Vasari  mentions  two 
"  most  beautiful  profile  heads  of  women,"  which  must 
have  been  executed  in  those  early  days,  and  which  he  had 
seen  among  the  treasures  of  the  Medici  Palace,  in  the  reign 
of  Duke  Cosimo.  There  was  the  likeness  of  Lucrezia 
Tornabuoni,  the  admirable  mother  to  whom  Lorenzo  was 
so  deeply  attached,  and  whose  death  in  1482  he  lamented 
so  truly.  The  other,  Vasari  tells  us,  was  said  to  be  the 
portrait  of  the  " innamorata  di  Giuliano  di  Medici"  that 
Bella  Simonetta,  who,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was  the  lady 
of  his  heart  and  the  Queen  of  his  Tournament.  The 
Vespucci,  we  know,  were  among  Botticelli's  earliest  and 
most  constant  patrons.  Their  palazzo  was  in  the  same 
parish  as  Sandro's  home,  and  they  had  a  country  house  at 
Peretola,  where  the  Filipepi  also  owned  property.  Vasari 
tells  us  that  the  artist  helped  in  the  decoration  of  their 
palace,  and  painted  a  series  of  subjects  full  of  beautiful  and 
animated  figures  set  in  richly  carved  frames  of  walnut  wood. 


LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA  133 

And  a  few  years  after  Simonetta's  death  he  was  employed 
by  her  kinsman,  the  ecclesiastic  Giorgio  Antonio  Vespucci, 
to  paint  a  fresco  in  the  parish  church  of  Ognissanti,  where 
the  family  had  their  burial-place.  So  that  nothing  is  more 
likely  than  that  Sandro  should  have  painted  the  portrait  of 
Marco's  fair  wife,  whose  features  he  had  already  reproduced 
in  the  Pallas  of  the  standard  which  Giuliano  had  proudly 
borne  to  the  fray  on  the  great  day  of  his  Giostra.  Two 
portraits  which  bore  the  names  of  these  ladies  and  were  not 
without  a  certain  relationship  in  style  and  execution,  were 
formerly  ascribed  to  the  master  and  supposed  to  be  the 
works  described  by  Vasari.  One  is  the  profile  bust  of  a 
pleasant-looking,  fair-haired  lady  clad  in  the  simple  everyday 
dress  of  a  Florentine  citizen's  wife,  with  an  honest,  sensible 
face,  such  as  we  should  expect  to  belong  to  Lorenzo's  wise 
and  large-hearted  mother.  But  although  the  picture  which 
Rumohr  bought  in  Florence  for  the  Berlin  Gallery,  may 
possibly  represent  Lucrezia  Tornabuoni,  its  execution  is  too 
inferior  to  be  from  the  hand  of  Botticelli,  and  it  can  only 
be  a  school  work.  The  profile  of  Simonetta  in  the  Pitti 
has  more  affinity  with  Sandro's  work,  and  the  features 
agree  with  Ghirlandajo's  portrait  of  Marco  Vespucci's 
work  in  his  Ognissanti  fresco  ;  but  the  lack  of  grace  in  the 
figure  and  the  exaggerated  proportions  of  the  long,  narrow 
neck,  make  it  impossible  to  believe  that  he  was  its  author. 
Yet  there  is  character  as  well  as  refinement  in  the  clear-cut 
features,  and  undoubted  charm  in  the  slender  girlish  form, 
with  its  quiet,  simple  dress  of  Puritan  simplicity,  the  plain 
white  cap  and  white  slashed  sleeve  of  the  dark,  square-cut 


134  LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA 

bodice,  which  in  shape  and  hue  so  closely  resembles  the 
Berlin  picture.  Mr.  Berenson  has  ascribed  this  much 
discussed  portrait  to  the  unknown  assistant  and  imitator 
whom  he  styles  Amico  di  Sandro,  and  who  may  have  exe~ 
cuted  this  picture  in  his  master's  bottega.  A  halo  of 
romance  surrounds  this  Florentine  beauty  whose  charms 
made  so  profound  an  impression  on  Lorenzo  and  his  com- 
panions, and  whose  early  death  was  so  deeply  lamented  by 
the  members  of  that  brilliant  circle.  Poliziano  describes 
her  as  "  a  simple  and  innocent  maiden,  who  never  gave  cause 
for  jealousy  or  scandal,"  and  says  that  "  among  other  ex- 
cellent gifts  she  had  so  sweet  and  attractive  a  manner  that 
all  those  who  had  any  familiar  acquaintance  with  her,  or  to 
whom  she  paid  any  attention,  thought  themselves  the 
object  of  her  affections.  Yet  no  woman  ever  envied  her, 
but  all  gave  her  great  praise,  and  it  seemed  an  extraordinary 
thing  that  so  many  men  should  love  her  without  exciting 
any  jealousy,  and  that  so  many  ladies  should  praise  her 
without  feeling  any  envy." 

Lorenzo  himself  was  sincerely  attached  to  Marco  Ves- 
pucci's charming  young  wife,  and  speaks  and  writes  of  her 
with  brotherly  affection  and  sympathy.  His  intimate  friend- 
ship with  the  Vespucci  brothers  brought  him  into  frequent 
relations  with  her,  and  he  was  deeply  concerned  when,  in 
the  spring  of  1476,  only  a  year  after  Giuliano's  Tourna- 
ment, she  was  attacked  by  the  fatal  disease  which  put  an 
end  to  her  life.  He  sent  his  own  doctor,  Maestro  Stefano, 
to  attend  to  her,  and  when  he  went  to  Pisa  in  April, 
charged  her  father-in-law,  Piero,  to  let  him  have  the  latest 


LA   BELLA    SIMONETTA   AS  PALLAS 


LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA  135 

reports  of  her  health,  On  the  i6th  Piero  wrote  :  "La 
Simonetta  is  much  the  same  as  when  you  left.  There  is 
but  little  improvement  in  her  condition.  She  is  attended 
by  Maestro  Stefano  and  every  one  about  her  in  the  most 
assiduous  manner,  and  this,  you  may  be  sure,  will  always 
be  the  case."  On  the  i8th  Piero  was  able  to  send  better 
news.  u  A  day  or  two  ago,"  he  writes  to  Lorenzo,  "  I 
told  you  of  Simonetta's  illness.  Now  by  the  grace  of  God 
and  the  skill  of  your  physician,  Maestro  Stefano,  she  is  a 
little  better.  She  has  less  fever  and  oppression  in  her 
chest;  eats  and  sleeps  better.  From  what  the  doctors 
say,  we  quite  hope  that  her  illness  will  not  last  long. 
Little  can  be  done  for  her  in  the  way  of  medicine,  but 
great  care  is  necessary.  Since  Maestro  Stefano's  good 
advice  has  been  the  cause  of  her  improvement,  we  all  of 
us  thank  you  exceedingly,  and  so  does  her  mother,  who  is 
now  at  Piombtno,  and  feels  most  grateful  for  the  light  which 
he  has  thrown  upon  her  illness."  Piero  goes  on  to  beg 
Lorenzo  to  recall  the  doctor,  and  tell  him  what  fees  he 
ought  to  receive,  adding  that  he  is  unwilling  to  detain  the 
physician  longer,  and  fears  that  he  may  be  unable  to  satisfy 
his  claims.  But  the  improvement  in  the  patient's  condition 
proved  only  temporary,  and  four  days  later  Piero  wrote  again 
to  inform  the  Magnifico  that  his  daughter-in-law  was  grow- 
ing rapidly  worse.  The  two  doctors,  Maestro  Stefano  and 
her  habitual  physician  Maestro  Moyse — evidently  as  most 
doctors  were  in  those  days,  of  Jewish  race — held  a  con- 
sultation and  did  not  agree  as  to  the  cause  of  the  illness. 
"  Maestro  Stefano  maintains  that  it  is  neither  consumption 


136  LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA 

nor  phthisis,  and  Maestro  Moyse  holds  the  contrary  opinion  ; 
I  know  not  which  of  the  two  is  right.  They  have,  how- 
ever, agreed  to  give  their  patient  a  certain  medicine  which 
they  both  hold  to  be  an  efficacious  remedy.  I  know  not," 
adds  Piero  sorrowfully,  "  what  the  result  may  prove.  God 
grant  that  it  may  have  the  desired  effect ! "  And  he  begs 
Lorenzo  to  allow  Maestro  Stefano  to  remain  another  week, 
by  which  time  it  will  be  easier  to  see  the  course  of  events. 
Before  the  week  was  over,  poor  Simonetta  had  breathed 
her  last,  and  Lorenzo's  trusted  servant,  Bettini,  wrote  to  his 
master  of  the  sad  event :  "  The  blessed  soul  of  Simonetta 
has,  I  have  just  heard,  passed  into  Paradise.  Her  end,  it 
may  be  truly  said,  was  another  Triumph  of  Death,  and,  in- 
deed, if  you  had  seen  her  lying  dead,  she  would  have 
seemed  to  you  no  less  beautiful  and  attractive  than  she  was 
in  life.  Requiescat  in  pace." 

On  the  following  day  the  funeral  took  place,  and 
Simonetta  was  borne  to  her  grave  with  her  fair  face 
uncovered  "that  all  might  see  her  beauty,  which  was 
still  greater  in  death  than  it  had  been  in  life."  In  Pe^ 
trarch's  words : 

"  Morte  bella  parea  net  suo  be  I  vo/to." 

Bettini  describes  the  tears  and  lamentations  of  the  crowds 
who  followed  the  funeral  train  from  the  house  of  the  Ves- 
pucci to  Sandro's  own  parish  church  of  Ognissanti,  where 
Marco's  dead  wife  was  laid  in  the  burial  vault  of  his  family. 
Lorenzo  has  told  us  how  the  news  reached  him  at  Pisa  on 
that  sweet  April  evening,  and  how  as  he  walked  in  the  garden, 


LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA  137 

thinking  sadly  of  the  beloved  dead,  a  bright  star  rose  sud- 
denly above  the  horizon,  and  he  knew  that  it  was  the 
blessed  Simonetta's  spirit  which  had  been  transformed  into 
this  new  constellation.  "  All  the  learned  Florentines,"  he 
goes  on  to  say,  "  were  grieved  for  her,  and  lamented  the  bit- 
terness of  her  death,  in  prose  and  verse,  seeking  to  praise 
her  each  according  to  his  faculty."  Lorenzo  himself  wrote 
sonnets  in  her  memory,  Poliziano  composed  his  famous 
Latin  epigram : 

"  Dum  pulchra  effertur  nigro  Simonettaferetro" 

and  inspired  by  Giuliano,  who  had  been  present  at  his 
adored  lady's  deathbed,  turned  with  full  confidence  to 
God.  Pagan  conceits  and  Christian  hopes  are  blended, 
in  the  same  strange  manner,  in  the  beautiful  elegy  which 
Bernardo  Pulci  composed  on  this  occasion,  and  dedicated 
to  the  sorrowing  Giuliano.  He  calls  on  the  nymphs  and 
goddesses,  who  endowed  Simonetta  with  rich  beauty,  to 
have  pity  on  sad  Genoa  and  the  mourning  banks  of  the 
Arno,  and  tells  how  the  blessed  spirit — " felice  alma  beata" 
— has  fled  from  the  trouble  of  this  life  to  the  eternal  realm 
where  Laura  and  Beatrice  wait  to  welcome  her.  In  a  son- 
net, which  has  a  prophetic  strain,  he  paints  the  happy  soul 
bending  from  heaven  to  bid  her  lover  weep  no  more,  lest 
his  tears  should  mar  her  bliss,  and  tells  him  that  all  her 
thoughts  are  still  of  him,  on  that  blessed  shore  where  she 
awaits  his  coming. 

If  Simonetta's  name  lives  in  the  immortal  verse  of  these 
Florentine  poets,  tradition  has  associated   it  no  less   inti- 


138  LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA 

mately  with  the  art  of  Botticelli.  A  whole  group  of 
portraits,  in  which  this  gentle  maiden  is  represented  with 
the  golden  curls,  bright  eyes  and  "  dolce  riso"  of  which 
the  poets  sing,  are  to  be  found  in  public  and  private  col- 
lections, all  alike  ascribed  to  Sandro.  Chief  among  these  is 
the  beautiful  portrait  at  Chantilly,  inscribed  with  the 
words — "  Simonetta  Jannensis  Vespuccia,"  in  which  the 
best  modern  critics  now  recognize  the  hand  of  Piero  di 
Cosimo,  the  no  less  attractive  bust  in  Sir  Frederick  Cook's 
collection  at  Richmond,  and  a  somewhat  similar  profile  at 
Berlin,  which  originally  came  from  the  Medici  Palace. 
All  of  these  have  the  same  fair,  rippling  hair,  the  same 
animated  expression,  the  same  rich  costume,  and  ornaments 
of  pearl  and  gold,  in  marked  contrast  to  the  Puritan 
simplicity  of  the  Pitti  portrait.  Whether  they  came  from 
Botticelli's  workshop  or  are  copies  of  some  lost  original, 
they  all  have  certain  distinctive  features  which  reappear  in 
Sandro's  conceptions.  This  has  led  some  writers,  notably 
Mr.  Ruskin,  to  see  in  the  peculiar  types  which  recur  in  his 
paintings — the  long  throat,  tall  slender  form  and  angular 
features,  reminiscences  of  Giuliano's  lost  love,  the  fair 
mistress  whose  fame  lives  in  Poliziano's  verse  and 
Lorenzo's  Sonnets.  It  is  Simonetta,  Mr.  Ruskin  tells 
us,  in  a  note  to  his  Ariadne  Florentine  who  was  the  model 
of  all  Sandro's  fairest  women.  He  paints  her  as  Venus 
rising  new-born  from  the  waves  and  holding  court  in  the 
bowers  of  spring  ;  or  Abundance,  light  of  foot  and  glad 
of  heart,  scattering  her  treasures  of  plenty  as  she  walks ; 
as  Zipporah  at  the  well,  where  Moses  waters  her  father's 


LA  BELLA  SIMONETTA  139 

flock ;  or  as  Truth,  rejected  of  men,  calling  on  heaven  to 
bear  her  witness  and  teach  Florence  the  lesson  which  her 
children  refused  to  learn.  The  theory,  interesting  and 
ingenious  as  it  appears,  will  hardly  bear  too  strict  an  ex- 
amination, but  the  tradition  which  ascribes  the  authorship 
of  these  numerous  portraits  of  Simonetta  to  Botticelli 
affords  another  proof  of  the  painter's  close  connection 
with  the  Medici  house. 

Unfortunately,  the  other  portraits  which  Sandro  painted 
for  the  Medici  have  shared  the  same  fatality  which  has 
attended  his  pictures  of  Simonetta.  Two  portraits  of 
Giuliano,  with  the  olive  skin  and  thick  locks  framing  his 
strongly-marked  features  and  lively  black  eyes,  are  still, 
it  is  true,  in  existence,  and  were  during  many  years  the 
subject  of  an  animated  controversy  between  Italian  and 
German  critics.  Morelli  contended  that  the  portrait  at 
Bergamo  was  the  original  work  by  Sandro,  while  Dr.  Bode 
stood  out  stoutly  in  defence  of  the  Berlin  picture.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  both  of  these  lack  the  life  and  vigour  of 
Botticelli's  art ;  and  Mr.  Berenson  maintains  that,  like  the 
bella  Simonetta  of  the  Pitti,  which  it  resembles  strongly  in 
the  hardness  of  outline  and  in  the  modelling  of  the  face, 
the  portrait  of  Giuliano,  in  the  Morelli  collection  at 
Bergamo,  is  by  the  hand  of  an  assistant  whom  he  styles 
Amico  di  Sandro. 


MARIA  VOOGT  AND  ELIZABETH  BAS 

(Frans  Hals  and  Rembrandt) 

GERALD  S.  DA  VIES 

WHEN  we  come  to  the  superb  portrait  of  Maria 
Voogt,  who  is  also  sometimes  called  Madame  Van 
der  Meer,  in  the  Van  der  Hoop  collection  in  the  Rijks 
Museum  at  Amsterdam,  we  are,  it  is  true,  set  thinking  of 
Rembrandt.  It  is  exactly  the  same  type  of  the  old  Dutch 
lady  which  Rembrandt  loved  to  paint.  She  wears  the 
same  costume  naturally  enough,  as  Rembrandt's  old  ladies 
in  the  same  station  of  life,  and  she  sits  in  the  same  simple 
and  quiet  pose.  But  these  are  traits  common  to  both  men, 
which  neither  has  derived  from  the  other.  It  is  warmer  in 
its  shadows  and  its  half-tones,  and  has  more  gold  in  its 
lights  than  is  usual  with  Hals.  Perhaps  it  has.  But  walk 
two  rooms  off  and  look  at  Rembrandt's  portrait  of  Eliza- 
beth Jacobs  Bas,  the  widow  of  Admiral  Swartenhont. 
You  will  see  at  once  that  Hals's  picture  is  in  cool  day- 
light compared  with  the  artificial  golden  light  with  which 
Rembrandt's  picture  is  suffused.  If  the  two  pictures 
could  be  hung  side  by  side,  what  one  would  at  once  notice 
would  be  that  all  the  apparent  similarity  had  vanished,  and 
the  points  of  difference  seemed  multiplied.  The  experi- 
ment would,  in  one  way,  be  eminently  unfair  to  Hals. 
The  golden  light  of  the  Rembrandt  would  make  the  quiet 
and  true,  I  must  claim  to  be  allowed  to  say  truer,  though 
less  fascinating  daylight  of  Hals  look  very  cold  indeed. 


MARIA  VOOGT 


MARIA  VOOGT  AND  ELIZABETH  BAS  14! 

He  would  suffer  misjudgment  at  the  hands  of  all  save  the 
most  cool-headed  and  judicial  of  critics. 

But  one  can  find  no  single  point  which  helps  to  make  a 
great  portrait,  in  which  Hals  need,  in  this  Maria  Voogt  or 
Madame  Van  der  Meer,  fear  comparison  either  with  that 
masterpiece  of  Rembrandt's  or,  to  set  the  claim  plainly, 
with  any  portrait  that  ever  has  been  painted.  That  is,  of 
course,  not  the  same  thing  as  saying  that  it  is  delightful  as 
some  portraits  that  have  been  painted,  and  yet  it  is  very 
enjoyable. 

The  face  is  a  quiet,  shrewd,  penetrating  face,  with  more 
refinement  than  most  Dutch  women  of  the  day  possessed. 
She  was  built  in  a  less  masterful  mould  of  mind  and  body, 
for  instance,  than  the  kindly,  solid,  hard-bitten  admiral's 
wife.  Hals  has  given  one  here  the  inner  life  of  his  sitter 
— that  which  at  times  one  is  tempted  to  declare  he  cannot 
give  :  and  that  inner  life,  one  may  safely  say,  one  which 
was  hardly  akin  to  his  own.  That  brown,  Dutch-bound, 
silver-clasped  Bible  there  has  got  itself  well  into  the  life 
of  the  clear-eyed  old  dame.  It  is  no  hypocrisy — you  may 
swear  it  from  her  face — that  made  her  choose  to  be  painted  so. 

As  we  have  said,  she  is  cast  in  a  less  stern  and  also  in  a 
lest  sturdy  mould  than  the  grand  old  Dutchwoman  whom 
Rembrandt  painted.  She  did  less  of  the  housework  with 
her  own  hands — look  at  them  and  see — than  Dame  Eliza- 
beth Bas.  As  one  looks  at  the  admiral's  wife,  one  feels 
the  conviction  that,  whatever  happened  at  sea,  it  was  she 
who  commanded  the  ship  at  home.  There  is  strength  in 
every  line  of  the  shrewd,  homely  face,  and  in  the  quiet 


142  MARIA  VOOGT  AND  ELIZABETH  BAS 

ease  of  the  strong  hands  which  lie  folded  upon  one  another. 
The  hands  of  Hals's  portrait  are  fully  as  expressive  of 
character  but  the  character  is  different.  There  is  quiet, 
firm  decision  in  them,  but  they  do  not  belong  to  a  per- 
sonality of  the  same  rugged  and  robust  strength  as  the 
other  housewife.  Yet  I  take  it  that  she  knew  her  own 
mind  as  well  in  her  quiet  decided  way,  and  that  there  was 
little  that  was  contrary  to  sound  order  in  the  Haarlem  home 
of  the  Van  der  Meers. 

As  a  piece  of  insight  into  character  this  picture  by  Hals 
stands  in  the  very  highest  order  of  portrait-painting.  As  a 
piece  of  mere  painting,  apart  from  any  such  consideration, 
it  may  be  set  side  by  side  with  any  portrait  from  any  hand 
and  will  be  found  to  have  no  superior.  We  have  dis- 
claimed, on  behalf  of  Hals,  any  attempt  to  paint  in  the 
manner  of  Rembrandt,  or  to  follow  his  influence ;  but  it 
may,  on  the  other  hand,  very  well  be  the  case  that  the 
growing  fame  of  the  younger  man  had  set  him  on  his 
mettle  and  that  he  felt  himself,  about  this  period,  answer- 
ing a  challenge.  And  in  this  portrait  he  has  answered  it 
u  so  that  the  opposer  may  beware  of  him."  Always  in  my 
experience,  and  I  have  sat  many  hours  at  different  times 
before  both  pictures,  you  will  find  a  dozen  persons  who 
are  attracted  by  Rembrandt's  Elizabeth  Bas,  and  who  will 
sit  before  it,  as  it  deserves  to  be  sat  before,  for  a  consider- 
able time,  as  against  one  who  gives  even  a  short  five  min- 
utes to  the  colder,  less  overmastering,  but  quite  as  masterly, 
and  even  more  true,  portrait  of  Dame  Van  der  Meer. 

The  face  is  painted  with  the  simple  directness  which  al- 


MARIA  VOOGT  AND  ELIZABETH  BAS  143 

ways  marks  him.  Very  noticeable,  indeed,  is  the  manner 
in  which  he  has  dealt  with  the  shadow  at  the  side  of  the 
forehead.  It  is  laid  on  in  flat  mass — almost  blocked  in, 
after  the  practice  followed  in  laying  in  in  modern  French 
studio  work — and  it  is  joined  to  the  higher  flesh  tones  ap- 
parently by  no  subtle  modulations  or  passages  of  half-tone, 
as  Velasquez  would  have  done  it,  nor  yet  is  it  blurred  and 
softened,  as  Rembrandt  would  have  given  it,  but  it  seems 
at  first  sight  almost  to  have  a  straight  edge  to  it,  so  firm, 
definite,  and  decided  it  is.  And  yet  there  is  here  given  to 
us  by  this  simple  and  direct  means  all  the  transparency  and 
the  modelling  of  the  concave  shadow  at  the  side  of  the 
forehead.  The  same  directness  of  simplicity  and  oneness 
of  handling  are  visible  everywhere  in  the  face.  He  has 
seen  it  all  once  for  all,  and  set  it  down  once  for  all,  the 
modelling  being  everywhere  obtained  by  overlappings  of 
colour  laid  on  somewhat  liquid  in  masses.  I  do  not  mean 
by  this  to  imply,  as  it  might  be  construed,  that  Hals's  sur- 
face is  painty.  It  is  so  far  otherwise  that  the  thing  seems 
to  have  come  of  itself,  and  the  manner  of  its  doing  does 
not  enforce  itself  upon  you.  When  you  compel  yourself 
to  try  to  find  out  how  it  is  all  achieved,  you  discover  the 
absolute  simplicity  of  the  means  employed.  The  magic  of 
the  thing  lay  in  the  "  knowing  how." 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  painting  of  the  hands  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  rendering  of  character.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  regard  them  also  from  the  point  of  view  of  mere 
technique.  It  will  be  doubly  interesting  to  compare  them 
with  Rembrandt's  hands  in  the  Elizabeth  Bas  close  by. 


144  MARIA  VOOGT  AND  ELIZABETH  BAS 

How  absolutely  different  the  means  by  which  the  two  men 
obtain  their  results,  and  how  absolutely  right  each  man  is 
in  his  own  method  !  Hals  gets  his  hands,  in  all  his  portraits, 
by  direct  sweeps  of  the  brush,  full  of  very  liquid  colour,  fol- 
lowing down  the  lines  of  the  bones,  and  obtaining  the  artic- 
ulations of  the  joints  with  almost  imperceptible  changes  of 
colour  in  the  onward  passage.  There  is  very  little  loading 
of  paint  or  dragging  across  the  lines  of  the  anatomy,  except 
here  and  there  to  give  the  modelling  of  the  back  of  the  hand 
or  of  the  muscle  between  the  first  finger  and  the  thumb. 
It  is  interesting,  by  the  way,  to  notice  an  often  employed 
device  of  Hals,  by  which  he  makes  the  round  parts  of  the 
hand,  seen  against  the  dress,  go  round,  as  it  were,  instead 
of  presenting  a  solid  flat  edge  against  the  dark.  It  will  be 
found  that  he  draws  a  film  of  very  thin  colour  beyond 
the  edge  of  the  hand  in  places,  through  which  the  colour  of 
the  dress  or  other  background  shines.  Now  seen  close,  this 
sort  of  film,  or  blurred  second  outline,  seems  to  have  no 
meaning  or  to  be  even  the  result  of  careless  haste.  The 
restorer  usually  removes  it,  one  may  observe,  as  his  first 
duty  to  his  author ;  but  retire  a  pace  or  two,  and  you  find 
that  you  have  got,  in  mysterious  fashion,  the  sense  of  the 
soft  flesh  going  round  as  it  does  in  nature,  towards  the  dress. 
And  all  this  apparently  shapeless  and  incoherent  set  of 
sweeps  and  patches  becomes,  at  the  proper  distance,  a  liv- 
ing human  hand,  and  moreover  the  living  human  hand  of 
the  person  to  whom  it  belongs,  and  as  full  of  character  as 
the  face  itself. 

Now  go  to  a  Rembrandt  hand  and  you  will  find  it  as  full 


ELIZABETH     BAS 


MARIA  VOOGT  AND  ELIZABETH  BAS  145 

of  character  and  wrought  with  the  same  magician's  power 
and  knowledge  as  a  hand  by  Hals ;  but  the  result  is  got  by 
a  wholly  different  technique.  Rembrandt  loads  his  colour 
on  with  a  heavy  impasto,  into  which  he  can  even  dig  his 
brush — it  is  sometimes  almost  like  a  piece  of  modelling 
rather  than  paint — and  he  drags  his  colour  athwart  the  lines 
of  the  fingers  and  of  the  bones,  and  rarely  in  a  following 
line  with  them.  This  too,  seen  close — smelt,  as  Rem- 
brandt himself  would  have  said — is  a  shapeless  patch  of 
blurs  and  blotches.  It  is  a  living  expressive  human  hand 
only  when  you  go  to  the  distance  at  which  the  painter 
meant  it  to  be  seen. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  consummate  skill  with  which 
in  the  Van  der  Meer  portrait  Hals  has  painted  the  book, 
and  indeed  every  accessory  of  this  masterpiece.  That  book, 
indeed,  is  so  matchless  a  piece  of  still-life  painting,  that  it 
would  be  open  to  the  charge  of  being  too  interesting  in  it- 
self, and  too  little  of  an  accessory,  if  it  were  not  kept  entirely 
in  its  place  by  the  interest  of  the  face  itself.  One  does  not 
turn  to  think  of  such  a  detail  till  one  has  taken  in  the  true 
purpose  of  the  picture  first.  When  one  does  so,  it  is  to  be- 
come aware  once  more  that  Hals  has  answered  the  chal- 
lenge that  any  still-life  painter  of  them  all  might  issue. 

Indeed,  if  Hals  were  called  upon  to  choose  one  single 
work  of  his  wherewith  to  take  his  stand  against  all  comers, 
he  might  well  select  his  portrait  of  the  lady  of  the  house  of 
Van  der  Meer,  which  he  painted  in  1639,  at  the  age  of 
fifty-nine — the  halfway  date,  as  we  have  consented  to  call 
it  in  his  artistic  career. 


LAVINIA  VECELLI 

(Titian) 

J.  A.  CROWE  and  G.  B.  CAVALCASELLE 

IN  quiet  hours  when  undisturbed  by  any  but  purely  artis- 
tic considerations,  Titian  threw  more  soul  and  feeling 
into  his  work,  and  this  is  more  particularly  true  of  a  con- 
temporary portrait  in  the  Dresden  Museum,  the  features  of 
which  are  apparently  those  of  Lavinia  Vecelli.  Scanelli,  the 
author  of  the  Microcosmo,  has  preserved  the  substance  of  a 
letter  in  which  Titian  announced  to  Alfonso  of  Ferrara  the 
despatch  of  a  picture  "  representing  the  person  dearest  to 
him  in  all  the  world."  He  then  describes  "  the  figure  of  a 
young  girl,  of  life-size,  gracefully  walking  with  her  face  at 
three  quarters,  and  looking  out  brightly  as  she  waves  her 
fan — the  time,  a  summer  afternoon,  when  the  girl,  one 
might  think,  was  courted  by  her  exalted  lover."  The  por- 
trait admired  by  Scanelli  is  no  doubt  that  of  the  young  girl 
in  white  at  the  Dresden  Museum.  But  it  would  be  a  mis- 
take to  suppose  that  this  lovely  maid  was  painted  for  Al- 
fonso, a  fortiori  a  mistake  to  believe  that  she  was  the  mis- 
tress of  a  prince  who  died  in  1534,  nor  can  we  believe  that 
Titian  portrayed  the  person  dearest  to  the  duke,  since  it  is 
apparent  that  he  meant  to  immortalize  the  face  and  form 
of  his  own  daughter.  We  shall  presently  see  that  he  often 
painted  Lavinia,  whose  real  name  was  curiously  changed  to 
Cornelia  by  writers  of  a  later  age.  Though  unfortunate  in 
his  eldest  son  Pomponio,  who  disgraced  the  priest's  cas- 


LAVINIA  VECELL1    WITH  FRUIT 


LAVINIA  VECELLI  147 

sock  and  squandered  his  father's  means  in  debauchery, 
Titian  was  happy  in  the  affection  of  two  children  worthy 
of  his  love,  Orazio,  who  accompanied  him  to  Rome  and 
gave  numerous  proofs  of  pictorial  skill,  and  Lavinia,  a 
beauty  who  married  Cornelio  Sarcinelli  of  Serravalle  in 
1555.  Ridolfi  refers  to  Lavinia  when  he  describes  "  a 
maiden  carrying  a  basket  of  fruit,"  by  Titian,  in  possession 
of  Niccolo  Crasso,  and  "  a  girl  holding  a  basin  with  two 
melons,"  by  the  same  hand,  in  the  collection  of  Giovanni 
d'Uffel  of  Antwerp.  Of  both  he  writes  "that  they  were 
said  to  represent  the  painter's  daughter  Cornelia."  We 
remember  the  adventures  of  Covos  with  the  lady  in  waiting 
of  Countess  Pepoli,  and  pardon  the  error  which  confounded 
the  maid  of  Bologna  with  that  of  Biri  Grande.  The  girl 
with  the  fruit  is  still  preserved  in  the  Museum  of  Berlin, 
and  is  probably  that  which  was  claimed  as  a  portrait  of  La- 
vinia by  Argentina  Rangone  in  1549.  There  were  rela- 
tions of  friendship  between  the  Rangones  and  Titian  in 
that  year,  and  Argentina  proposed  to  take  one  of  her  de- 
pendents as  an  apprentice  into  his  workshop  at  Venice.  In 
the  letter  which  she  wrote  upon  this  matter  she  refers  to 
Lavinia's  portrait,  which  she  begs  Titian  to  complete ;  and 
we  can  easily  fancy  that  the  master  instantly  attended  to 
the  wish  of  a  lady  who  was  godmother  to  one  of  his  chil- 
dren. The  counterparts  of  the  canvas  at  Berlin  are  the 
portrait  of  a  lass  with  a  casket  in  Lord  Cowper's  collec- 
tion, and  Salome  in  the  gallery  at  Madrid,  both  of  which 
display  with  more  or  less  resemblance  the  features  of  the 
girl  at  the  Dresden  Museum. 


148  LAVINIA  VECELLI 

Titian  at  eighty-two  wrote  to  Philip  the  Second  begging 
him  to  accept  the  portrait  of  a  lady  whom  he  described  as 
"  absolute  mistress  of  his  soul,"  but  Garcia  Hernandez,  the 
Spanish  Secretary  at  Venice,  explains  in  another  letter  that 
the  mistress  of  Titian's  soul  is  "  a  fanciful  representa- 
tion of  a  Turkish  or  Persian  girl."  Yet  what  Titian  de- 
scribed so  fondly  to  the  Duke  and  to  the  King  may  have 
been  the  face  of  Lavinia,  in  the  first  case  portrayed  from 
nature,  in  the  second  idealized  to  suit  the  fancy  of  Philip. 
Scanelli,  it  is  more  than  probable,  erred  in  stating  that 
Titian  wrote  to  Alfonso,  when  it  is  obvious  that  the  girl 
with  the  leaf-fan  at  Dresden  is  a  creation  of  the  time  when 
Titian  returned  from  Rome.  From  the  first  stroke  to  the 
last  this  beautiful  piece  is  the  work  of  the  master,  and  there 
is  not  an  inch  of  it  in  which  his  hand  is  not  to  be  traced. 
His  is  the  brilliant  flesh  brought  up  to  a  rosy  carnation  by 
wondrous  kneading  of  copious  pigment,  his  the  contours 
formed  by  texture  and  not  defined  by  outline ;  his  again  the 
mixture  of  sharp  and  blurred  touches,  the  delicate  modelling 
in  dazzling  light ;  the  soft  glazing,  cherry  lip,  and  spark- 
ling eye.  Such  a  charming  vision  as  this  was  well  fitted  to 
twine  itself  round  a  father's  heart. 

Lavinia's  hair  is  yellow  and  strewed  with  pearls,  showing 
a  pretty  wave  and  irrepressible  curls  in  stray^  locks  on  the 
forehead.  Earrings,  a  necklace  of  pearls,  glitter  with  grey 
reflections  on  a  skin  incomparably  fair.  The  gauze  on  the 
shoulders  is  light  as  air,  and  contrasts  with  the  stiff  richness 
of  a  white  damask  silk  dress  and  skirt,  the  folds  of  which 
ieave  and  sink  in  shallow  projections  and  depressions, 


LAVINIA  VECELLI  149 

touched  in  tender  scales  of  yellow  or  ashen  white.  The 
left  hand,  with  its  bracelet  of  pearls,  hangs  gracefully  as  it 
tucks  up  the  train  of  the  gown,  whilst  the  right  is  raised  no 
higher  than  the  waist,  to  wave  the  stiff  plaited  leaf  of  a  pal- 
metto fan.  Without  any  methodical  strapping  or  adjust- 
ment of  shape, — nay  with  something  formless  in  the  stiff 
span  and  lacing  of  the  bodice, — the  figure  is  the  very  re- 
verse of  supple,  and  yet  it  moves  with  grace,  shows  youth 
and  life  and  smiling  contentment,  and  a  stirring  grandeur 
of  carriage,  combined  with  ladylike  modesty.1 

Subsequent  repetitions  of  the  same  person  as  a  girl  bear- 
ing fruit  and  flowers,  or  a  Salome  raising  on  high  the  head 
of  the  Baptist,  merely  served  to  fix  a  type  which,  whether 
it  issued  from  Titian's  own  hands  or  those  of  his  disciples, 
preserved  always  the  aspect  of  youth. 

As  depicted  in  the  broad  manner  characteristic  of  Titian 
about  1550,  Lavinia,  at  Berlin,  is  full-grown  but  of  robust 
shape,  dressed  in  yellowish  flowered  silk  with  slashed  sleeves, 
a  chiselled  girdle  round  her  waist,  and  a  white  veil  hanging 
from  her  shoulders.  Her  head  is  thrown  back,  and  turned 
so  as  to  allow  three-quarters  of  it  to  be  seen  as  she  looks 
from  the  corners  of  her  eyes  to  the  spectator.  Auburn  hair 

1  This  portrait  came,  with  the  rest  of  the  Dresden  pictures,  from  Modena, 
and  is  an  heirloom  of  the  Estes.  On  canvas  three  feet  eight  inches  high 
by  three  feet  one  inch,  it  was  transferred  to  a  new  cloth  in  1827,  and  looks 
fairly  preserved.  The  brown  ground  is  darker  on  the  left  than  on  the 
right  side.  A  free  copy  on  canvas  ascribed  to  Titian  is  in  the  Cassel 
Museum.  But  the  features  are  not  the  same  as  those  of  the  Dresden  can- 
vas, and  the  hand  is  not  that  of  Titian,  though  the  copyist  may  have  been 
an  Italian.  More  Flemish  in  type  is  a  copy  by  Rubens  in  the  Museum 
of  Vienna.  A  study  for  the  original  at  Dresden,  in  black  and  red  chalk, 
is  in  the  Albertina  Collection  at  Vienna, 


150  LAVINIA  VECELLI 

is  carefully  brushed  off  the  temples,  and  confined  by  a  jew- 
elled diadem,  and  the  neck  is  set  off  with  a  string  of  pearls. 
A  deep  red  curtain  partly  concealing  a  brown-tinged  wall  to 
the  left,  to  the  right  a  view  of  hills,  seen  from  a  balcony  at 
eventide,  complete  a  picture  executed  with  great  bravura^ 
on  a  canvas  of  coarse  twill.  Fully  in  keeping  with  the  idea 
that  Titian  had  before  him  the  image  of  his  child,  is  the 
natural  and  unconstrained  movement,  the  open  face  and 
modest  look.  The  flesh,  the  dress,  are  coloured  with  great 
richness,  yet,  perhaps,  with  more  of  the  blurred  softness 
which  the  French  cally?0#,  than  is  usual  in  pure  works  of 
Titian.  It  may  be  that  excessive  blending  and  something 
like  down  or  fluff  in  the  touch  was  caused  by  time,  restor- 
ing, or  varnish.  It  may  be  that  these  blemishes  are  due  to 
the  co-operation  of  Orazio  Vecelli,  who  now  had  a  share 
in  almost  all  the  pictures  of  his  father,  as  he  had  his  con- 
fidence in  all  business  transactions.  But  in  the  main  this  is 
a  grand  creation  of  Titian.1 

Of  equal  richness  of  tone,  but  inferior  in  modelling,  and 
too  marked  in  its  freedom  to  be  entirely  by  Titian,  Lavinia 
with  the  casket,  in  Lord  Cowper's  London  collection,  is 
still  interesting  as  showing  the  well-known  features  of  the 
painter's  daughter  in  fuller  bloom  than  at  Berlin.  The 

1  This  example  of  Lavinia  is  No.  166  in  the  Berlin  Museum,  and  meas? 
ures  three  feet,  three  and  a-half  inches  by  two  feet,  seven  and  a-half  inches. 
A  tawny  film  of  old  varnish  lies  over  the  whole  surface,  and  there  are 
clear  signs  of  retouching  in  the  shadows  of  the  face,  the  wrists,  and  right 
hand,  and  the  sky.  A  strip  of  canvas  has  been  added  to  the  right  side  of 
the  picture,  which  was  bought  in  1832  from  Abbate  Celotti,  at  Florence, 
for  5,000  thalers.  The  Abbate  affirmed  it  was  identical  with  that  men- 
tioned by  Ridolii  as  painted  for  Niccol6  Crasso, 


LAVINIA  VECELLI  151 

casket  here  also  lies  on  a  silver  dish,  there  is  a  distance  of 
landscape  too,  but  the  balcony  is  wanting,  the  dress  is 
green,  the  veil  yellow,  and  the  face  is  cut  into  planes  of 
more  decided  setting,  whilst  the  frame  is  stronger  and  more 
developed  than  before.  There  is  more  ease  of  hand,  but 
also  more  laxity  in  the  rendering  of  form  than  we  like  to 
welcome  in  a  picture  all  by  Titian.  But  again  in  this,  as 
in  the  Berlin  example,  much  of  the  impression  produced 
may  be  caused  by  restoring. 

Younger  again,  but  with  naked  arms,  a  white  veil  and 
sleeve,  and  a  red  damask  dress,  the  Salome  of  Madrid  carries 
the  head  of  the  Baptist  on  a  chased  salver.  But  this  piece 
is  by  no  means  equal  in  merit  to  the  girl  with  the  casket, 
and  is  certainly  painted  by  one  of  Titian's  followers,  from 
the  Lavinia  of  Berlin. 


BALTHAZAR  CASTIGLIONE 

(Raphael) 

F.  A.  GRUYER 

THIS  is  one  of  the  finest  portraits  that  a  painter  ever 
made.  I  don't  know  of  one  that  is  more  natural  and 
less  laboured,  or  that  has  more  truth  and  less  pose.  We 
will  give  it  a  place  of  honour  in  the  Salon  carre  of  the 
Louvre. 

Among  the  great  minds  who  surrounded  Leo  X.  and 
with  whom  Raphael  was  on  terms  of  intimacy,  there  is  no 
more  sympathetic  personality  than  that  of  Count  Balthazar 
Castiglione.  Birth,  honours,  wit,  beauty,  fortune — he 
possessed  them  all.  An  able  politician,  a  warrior  on  occa- 
sion, a  brilliant  diplomatist,  a  poet,  a  man  of  erudition,  a 
moralist,  a  passionate  lover  of  the  arts,  an  honest  man  and 
a  perfect  gentleman,  he  has  come  down  to  us  as  the  su- 
preme type  of  the  great  noble  and  the  courtier. 

Balthazar  Castiglione,  of  the  Mantuan  branch  of  the 
Castiglione  family,  was  born  on  the  sixth  of  October,  1478, 
in  the  castle  of  Casatico  in  Mantua.  His  ancestors  went 
back  to  the  ancient  days  of  Lombard  feudalism  and  derived 
their  name  from  the  castle  of  Castiglione,  which  the  church 
of  Milan  had  given  to  them  at  the  end  of  the  Tenth 
Century.  His  coat  of  arms  bore  gules  a  lion  rampant  argent 
supporting  a  castle  or  dexter,  with  this  device :  POUR  NON 
FAILLIR.  His  father,  Cristoforo  Castiglione,  had  been  one 


BALTHAZAR  CASTIGLIONE 


BALTHAZAR  CASTIGLIONE  153 

of  the  heroes  of  the  battle  of  Taro,  where  he  was  slain ; 
and  his  mother,  Luigia  Gonzaga,  was  quoted  as  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  women  of  her  age.  Philippo  Beroaldo, 
the  elder,  directed  his  education ;  Giorgio  Merula  taught 
him  Latin  and  Demetrius  Calchondyle  instructed  him  in 
Greek.  In  1499,  we  find  him  in  the  suite  of  Francisco 
Gonzagua,  coming  from  Milan  to  congratulate  Louis  XII. 
In  1503,  he  behaved  valiantly  at  the  battle  of  Garagliano, 
and  retired  to  Rome  after  that  day's  disaster.  In  1504,  in 
accordance  with  the  desire  of  Julius  II.  and  with  the  per- 
mission of  the  Marquis  of  Mantua,  he  passed  into  the  serv- 
ice of  Guidobaldo  de  Montefeltro,  and  remained,  till  1516, 
either  at  the  court  of  Urbino,  or  in  the  embassies  confided 
to  him  by  the  Duke,  in  England,  France,  and  particularly 
in  Rome.  These  were  the  twelve  most  brilliant  years  of 
his  life.  He  was  at  Rome  in  1516  when  Leo  X.  took  the 
duchy  of  Urbino  away  from  Francisco  Maria  Delia  Rovere 
in  order  to  give  it  to  Lorenzo  II.  de'  Medicis.  Notwith- 
standing the  wishes  of  the  Pope  and  the  supplications  of 
Sadolet,  Beroalde,  Bibbiena  and  Navagero,  he  retired  to 
Mantua,  where  the  Gonzagas  married  him  to  Hippolita 
Torelli,  who  died  on  the  twentieth  of  August,  1520,  on 
bringing  her  third  child  into  the  world — Castiglione  was 
inconsolable.  The  four  years  of  this  union  had  been  for 
him  four  years  of  happiness,  four  years  of  concentration 
and  literary  production.  This  was  the  time  when  he  wrote 
the  best  of  his  Latin  poems  and  the  Cortegiano,  the  book  of 
the  Courtier,  which  has  made  him  famous.  From  the  year 
1520,  politics  again  takes  charge  of  his  life  and  brings 


154  BALTHAZAR  CASTIGLIONE 

him  scarcely  anything  but  disappointments.  In  1524, 
Clement  VII.  sent  him  to  Madrid  to  plead  a  cause  that 
was  irrevocably  lost  in  advance.  Charles  V.  gave  the  am- 
bassador a  warm  reception  but  remained  none  the  less  in- 
flexible. The  sack  of  Rome  in  1527,  and  the  captivity  of 
Clement  VII.  struck  poor  Castiglione  a  mortal  blow. 
Clement  VII.,  who  could  only  blame  himself  for  his  own 
mistakes,  accused  his  ambassador,  who  could  not  bear  this 
disgrace.  The  friendship  of  Charles  V.  served  only  to 
soften  his  last  moments.  Balthazar  Castiglione  died  at 
Toledo  on  the  second  of  February,  1529,  in  his  fifty-ninth 
year.  "  I  assure  you  that  death  has  deprived  us  of  one  of 
the  best  noblemen  in  the  world."  (To  vos  dlgo  ques  es 
muerto  uno  de  la  mejores  cavalleros  del  mundo)  said 
Charles  V.  to  the  youthful  Louis  Strozzi,  Balthazar's 
nephew.  Castiglione,  brought  back  to  Italy  sixteen 
months  later,  was  buried  in  the  church  of  the  Minor 
Friars,  where  his  mother  erected  a  monument  to  him  after 
designs  by  Giulio  Romano.  Aloysia  Gonzaga  contra  votum 
superstes  filio  bene  merito  posuit,  are  the  last  words  of  the 
epitaph  composed  by  Bembo. 

It  was  about  1515,  without  doubt,  that  Raphael  painted 
this  intimate  and  familiar  portrait  in  which  he  put  not  only 
his  genius  but  his  heart  also.  The  letter  written  in  1514 
by  Raphael  to  Castiglione,  on  the  question  of  the  Galatea 
shows  what  idea  of  perfection  the  artist  and  the  great  lord 
were  then  pursuing  in  common.  "  As  for  the  Galatea,  I 
should  consider  myself  a  great  master  if  even  half  the 
things  that  Your  Lordship  writes  to  me  on  this  question 


BALTHAZAR  CASTIGLIONE  155 

were  really  true;  but  I  recognize  in  your  words  the  affec- 
tion that  you  bear  for  me,  and  I  assure  you  that,  in  order  to 
paint  a  beautiful  woman,  I  need  to  see  several,  on  condi- 
tion that  Your  Lordship  is  with  me  so  as  to  help  me  to 
select.  But  lacking  good  judges  and  beautiful  women,  I 
must  avail  myself  of  a  certain  ideal  that  is  in  my  mind.  I 
do  not  know  whether  this  ideal  possesses  any  excellence, 
but  that  is  what  meanwhile  I  am  trying  to  attain." 

Balthazar  Castiglione  was  then  thirty-seven  years  old 
and  looked  his  age.  He  was  already  attacked  by  a  slight 
corpulency,  and  seemed  to  be  fitted  thenceforth  for  the  coun- 
cil rather  than  for  the  field  of  action.  Raphael  has  repre- 
sented him  seated,  almost  with  full  front  and  face,  visible 
down  to  the  waist,  the  face  slightly  turned  towards  the 
left,  and  hands  clasped  with  a  sense  of  abandonment  and 
familiarity.  The  costume,  rich  without  being  startling, 
would  not  suggest  the  warrior  in  the  slightest  degree  were 
it  not  for  the  hilt  of  a  sword  that  is  visible  above  the  left 
wrist.  A  white  shirt,  ruffled  rather  than  folded,  covers  the 
chest.  This  shirt  is  covered  by  a  robe  of  black  velvet, 
open  in  front  and  furnished  behind  with  a  high  collar. 
Ample  sleeves,  of  heavy  greyish  plush,  flow  over  the 
upper  arms,  while  the  black  velvet  sleeves  of  the  robe 
reappear  on  the  forearms.  The  head  is  full  of  warm 
colour.  The  brow  is  broad  and  the  baretta  leaves  it  fully 
displayed.  This  baretta,  of  black  velvet,  consists  of  a 
lower  cap  adorned  with  embroidery  also  black.  It  is 
surmounted  by  a  wide  toque  of  the  same  material  and 
hue.  It  is  raised  over  the  right  and  falls  over  the  left  ear. 


156  BALTHAZAR  CASTIGLIONE 

A  medal  is  fixed  on  the  right  side  of  it.  The  eyes,  sur- 
mounted by  heavy  blonde  brows  are  of  a  very  intense  blue 
and  are  admirable  in  drawing;  the  lids  fully  open  veil 
nothing  of  their  brightness.  The  great  charm  of  this 
head  is  in  its  gaze  which  is  at  the  same  time  gentle  and 
firm,  loyal  and  sincere  to  the  highest  degree.  The  nose  is 
not  irreproachable  in  form.  The  mouth,  with  lips  some- 
what strongly  accented,  is  small,  full  of  humour,  amiable 
and  benevolent.  The  cheeks,  partly  covered  with  heavy 
blonde  whiskers,  are  strong  of  hue  and  full  of  health. 
We  feel  attracted  with  strange  force  towards  this  per- 
sonage who  is  all  frankness,  goodness  and  virtue.  This 
painting  is  masterly  in  execution.  There  is  nothing  dry  in 
the  drawing,  and  it  is  remarkable  in  its  purity ;  the  con- 
tours, imprisoned  in  the  colour  and  merged  in  the  model- 
ling of  the  flesh  are  ungraspable,  so  to  speak.  In  the 
presence  of  a  model  whose  intimate  qualities  he  knew  so 
well,  Raphael  painted  with  enthusiasm,  with  a  sure  hand, 
rapidly,  and  without  the  slightest  hesitation.  This  is  one 
of  those  portraits  that  it  does  us  good  to  live  with.  "  To 
be  with  people  we  like,"  says  La  Bruyere,  "  is  sufficient, 
to  dream,  to  speak  or  not  to  speak  to  them,  to  think  of 
them  or  of  more  indifferent  things, — with  them  it  is  all  the 
same."  Among  his  contemporaries,  Balthazar  Castiglione 
was  that  kind  of  person  ;  and  he  lives  again  for  us  in  his 
portrait. 

May  we  be  allowed  to  enter  the  Salle  des  Sept  Metres  for 
a  moment  to  compare  Raphael's  portrait  of  Castiglione 
with  a  picture  by  Lorenzo  Costa,  representing  Isabella 


BALTHAZAR  CASTIGLIONE  157 

D'Este  crowned  by  Love.  The  scene  passes  in  the  midst 
of  one  of  those  mythologies  accommodated  to  the  taste  of 
the  Renaissance,  and  Vasari  says  that  for  the  most  part 
the  figures  of  which  this  picture  is  composed  are  portraits. 
This  is  what  reveals  the  individual  character  with  which 
each  is  endowed.  Examine,  in  the  foreground  to  the  left, 
the  young  hero,  who,  after  having  cut  off  the  head  of  the 
legendary  dragon,  leans  upon  the  halberd  which  he  has 
used  to  accomplish  his  exploit ;  compare  it  with  Raphael's 
portrait  of  Balthazar  Castiglione,  taking  into  account  the 
difference  of  age,  and  you  will  find  a  singular  resemblance 
between  them.  Is  not  the  head  similarly  constructed  ?  Is 
there  not  the  same  development  of  brow  ?  Do  we  not 
find  the  same  eyes  and  the  same  gaze,  the  same  medium- 
sized  nose  with  a  somewhat  defective  line,  the  same  small 
and  amiable  mouth,  and  finally  the  same  beard  of  the  same 
colour,  similarly  worn  and  of  similar  cut  ?  The  execution 
alone  differs.  For  the  mannered  grace  of  a  quattrocentista 
and  the  languor  of  expression  demanded  by  the  subject 
treated  by  Lorenzo  Costa,  Raphael  has  substituted  the 
freedom  of  line  of  a  real  master  and  the  natural  simplicity 
of  a  veritable  portrait.  Moreover,  there  is  nothing  surpris- 
ing in  meeting  Balthazar  Castiglione  in  the  picture  of  the 
painter  from  Ferrara.  This  picture  was  executed  about 
1506,  and  placed  in  the  palace  of  St.  Sebastian  in  Mantua. 
Castiglione,  then  twenty-eight  years  of  age  had  left  the 
court  of  Mantua  for  that  of  Urbino ;  but  Francisco 
Gonzagua  had  very  unwillingly  resigned  himself  to  this 
separation,  and  he  had  great  hopes  of  some  day  recapturing 


158  BALTHAZAR  CASTIGLIONE 

the  eminent  man  of  whom  he  had  been  deprived.  Would 
it  not  be  flattering  to  the  secret  desires  of  the  prince  to 
place  Balthazar  Castiglione  in  the  foreground  of  a  romantic 
scene  in  which  Isabella  d'Este  is  the  central  figure  ?  Was 
it  not  a  reminder  that  Castiglione  had  belonged  to  the 
Marquis  of  Gonzaga,  and  even  saying  that  he  was  still 
regarded  as  belonging  to  him  ?  Historic  agreement  here, 
therefore,  is  in  accordance  with  the  pictorial  appearances. 
What  a  delightful  prelude  that  forms  to  the  portrait  painted 
by  Raphael !  Beside  the  man  who  has  arrived  at  the 
maturity  of  his  age  and  the  pinnacle  of  his  station,  beside 
the  personage  represented  in  the  reality  of  his  life  and  of  his 
daily  costume,  there  is  the  young  man  in  the  charm  of  his 
springtide  beauty,  transfigured  by  allegory,  accoutred  with 
mythological  accessories  and  playing  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant parts  in  one  of  those  courts  that  doated  on  literary 
pretensions  and  classic  erudition.  Must  he  not  have  ap- 
peared like  this  in  1505,  when  he  recited  before  the 
Duchess  of  Urbino  his  dialogue  octaves  of  the  drama  of 
Tirsis?  Castiglione  was  then  at  the  beginning  of  his 
literary  vocation.  In  1515,  he  had  reached  its  apogee,  and 
his  marriage,  by  exalting  his  poetic  faculties,  was  about  to 
inspire  him  with  those  Latin  elegies  that  Scaliger  and  Paul 
Jove  declared,  although  quite  wrongly,  to  be  superior  to 
those  by  Propertius. 

One  of  them  is  too  closely  connected  with  our  subject 
for  us  not  to  refer  to  here;  that  is  the  one  that  Count 
Balthazar  gives  to  his  wife,  Hippolita  Torelli,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  portrait  painted  by  Raphael.  "  Thy  image, 


BALTHAZAR  CASTIGLIONE  159 

painted  by  Raphael's  hand  can  alone  alleviate  my  cares. 
That  image  constitutes  my  delight ;  to  it  I  direct  my  smiles  ; 
it  is  my  joy  ;  I  speak  to  it,  and  I  am  tempted  to  believe  that 
it  is  going  to  reply  to  my  words.  This  portrait  often 
seems  to  want  to  say  to  me  something  of  thy  sentiments 
and  of  thy  will,  and  to  speak  to  me  in  thy  name.  Thy 
child  recognizes  thee,  and  tries  to  utter  his  earliest  words 
before  thee.  It  is  thus  that  I  console  myself  and  cheat  the 
days  of  their  length."  Could  any  one  better  express  the 
resemblance  of  this  portrait,  and  what  a  speaking  likeness 
it  was  ? 

When  Balthazar  Castiglione  went  to  Spain  as  the 
ambassador  of  Clement  VII.  at  the  court  of  Charles  V., 
he  took  his  portrait  with  him.  After  his  death,  this  pre- 
cious painting  was  brought  back  to  Italy  and  entered  the 
cabinet  of  the  Duke  of  Mantua,  where  it  remained  till  the 
beginning  of  the  Seventeenth  Century.  Thence  it  passed 
into  the  collection  of  Charles  I.  of  England,  and  later  was 
bought  by  Van  Usselen.  Taken  to  the  Low  Countries, 
it  was  successively  copied  by  Rubens  and  Rembrandt. 
(The  latter  is  in  the  Albertina  collection,  at  Vienna.)  Put 
up  for  sale  on  April  gth,  1639,  Sandrart  bid  it  up  to  3,400 
florins  but  was  distanced  by  Don  Alfonso  de  Lopez,  a 
councillor  of  His  Most  Christian  Majesty,  and  it  was 
knocked  down  to  him  for  3,500  florins.  From  the  Lopez 
gallery,  it  passed  into  the  possession  of  Mazarin,  and  then 
into  the  collection  of  Louis  XIV.  It  was  finally  trans- 
ferred from  Versailles  to  the  Louvre. 

Painted  originally  on  wood,  this  portrait  has  been  trans- 


l6o  BALTHAZAR  CASTIGLIONE 

ferred  to  canvas.  An  engraving  worthy  at  the  same  time 
of  Raphael  and  of  Balthazar  Castiglione  has  yet  to  be  made 
of  this  picture,  which  is  thus  described  by  Bailly  :  "  A 
picture  representing  a  portrait  called  the  Castilian,  wear- 
ing a  sort  of  turban.  Figure  natural  size,  being  two  feet 
five  inches  high  and  two  feet  broad.  In  its  gilded  frame, 
Versailles,  Petite  Galerie  du  Roy."  From  this  description, 
we  see  how  ignorant  people  were  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century  in  France  regarding  the  Sixteenth  Cen- 
tury in  Italy.  Bailly  not  only  knew  nothing  of  the  polit- 
ical role  or  of  the  literary  importance  of  Castiglione,  but  he 
had  not  even  heard  the  name  pronounced.  He  sees  in  the 
portrait  of  this  celebrated  personage  a  man  named  or  rather 
surnamed  the  Castilian ;  and  his  head  covering  (the  toque 
so  characteristic  from  the  point  of  view  of  costume  in  Italy 
during  the  Sixteenth  Century)  he  calls  a  turban.  It  is  a 
wonder  that  he  did  not  take  Castiglione  for  a  Turk. ' 

Of  the  first  order  of  painting,  this  portrait  is  of  excep- 
tional importance  from  the  historical  point  of  view.  Cas- 
tiglione was  loyalty  itself  in  an  age  of  profound  demoraliza- 
tion. He  was  able  to  change  masters  without  betraying  any 
one  of  them,  to  serve  only  good  causes,  to  live  in  intimacy 
with  the  powerful  of  the  earth  without  losing  anything  of 
his  dignity.  The  dukes  of  Urbino,  Guidobaldo  de  Monte- 
feltro  and  Francisco  Maria  della  Rovere  cherished  a  great 
affection  for  him.  The  Marquis  of  Mantua,  Frederico 
Gonzagua,  who  had  been  his  first  lord,  considered  that  he 
had  come  into  his  most  precious  possession  when  he  got 
him  back.  Count  Balthazar  in  turn  charmed  Louis  XII., 


BALTHAZAR  CASTIGLIONE  l6l 

Henry  VII.,  and  Charles  V. ;  he  deserved  the  confidence 
of  Julius  II.,  Leo  X.,  and  Clement  VII.,  by  showing  himself 
superior  in  character  to  each  of  them.  Great  by  birth,  and 
still  greater  in  mind  and  heart,  it  is  in  art  and  letters  that  he 
has  survived  till  our  day  through  the  ages.  From  whatso- 
ever side  we  regard  him,  we  see  a  beautiful  soul  from  one 
end  to  the  other  of  a  beautiful  life.  That  soul  is  still  vi- 
brant in  Raphael's  portrait. 


THE  HON.  MRS.  GRAHAM 

(Gainsborough) 

LORD   RONALD    SUTHERLAND    GOWER 

AS  a  colourist,  Gainsborough  can  be  placed  next  to 
Van  Dyck,  and  in  England  he  created  a  new  school 
by  his  art  of  making  even  a  lady's  petticoat  a  thing  of 
beauty,  a  field  of  colour  as  beautiful  as  one  of  golden  cow- 
slips, or  as  gorgeous  as  one  of  scarlet  poppies.  He  could 
even  throw  a  halo  upon  a  ribbon  or  a  scarf.  Look  at  Mrs. 
Siddons's  dress  in  the  National  Gallery,  or  the  Blue  Boy's 
costume  at  Grosvenor  House,  or  at  Mrs.  Graham's  portrait 
in  the  National  Gallery  at  Edinburgh.  You  will  find  there 
is  no  exaggeration.  The  dresses  are  part  of  a  perfect 
scheme ;  only  Van  Dyck,  Rubens  and  Gainsborough 
ever  painted  such  textures  in  such  a  manner,  and  with 
such  a  feeling  for  the  beauty  of  colour  as  colour. 

Gainsborough  claims  also  a  supreme  rank  amongst  por- 
trait-painters for  the  characteristic  distinction  that  he  be- 
stowed upon  many  of  his  sitters.  In  the  portraits,  for  in- 
stance, of  the  lovely  Mrs.  Sheridan,  first  in  that  lovely 
sketch  of  herself  and  her  brother  when  children,  now  at 
Knole,  she  has  that  pathetic  expression  which  seems  to 
have  grown  upon  her,  for  nothing  can  be  sadder  or  more 
beautiful  than  her  look  in  the  full-length  seated  portrait, 
now  at  Lord  Rothschild's,  which  the  artist  painted  some 
years  later.  In  both  pictures  there  is  a  sad  detached  ex- 


THE  HON.   MRS.   GRAHAM 


THE  HON.  MRS.  GRAHAM  163 

pression  in  the  eyes,  an  expression  much  intensified  in  the 
second,  as  if  she  knew  that  her  life  was  drawing  near  its 
close.  When  one  looks  at  this  later  portrait,  one  can  be- 
lieve that  such  a  face  could  hardly  be  transfigured  by  any 
change,  however  heavenly  that  change  might  be,  so  perfect 
it  is  in  its  almost  superhuman  beauty.  It  was  consistent 
with  such  a  face  as  that  of  Eliza  Sheridan  that  she  should 
pass  away  almost  whilst  singing  Handel's  glorious  "  Waft 
her,  Angels." 

Some  of  Gainsborough's  portraits  of  ladies  have  a  strik- 
ing dignity,  a  particular  distinction  found  in  no  other  artist. 
This  is  very  marked  in  the  portrait  at  Edinburgh  of  Mrs. 
Graham,  and  reappears  in  a  portrait  of  the  same  lady  mas- 
querading as  a  housemaid.  It  is  also  seen  in  the  half- 
length  of  Mrs.  Siddons,  and  in  many  of  the  heads  of  hand- 
some youths,  especially  in  that  of  George  Canning,  painted 
shortly  after  he  left  Eton,  and  in  those  of  the  Duke  of 
Hamilton  and  his  brothers,  now  at  Waddesdon  :  it  is  also 
very  marked  in  the  unfinished  portrait  of  the  painter  him- 
self. It  is  the  head  of  a  great  gentleman  without  any  at- 
tempt at  pose,  with  frank  eyes  looking  straight  from  the 
picture,  eyes  full  of  brilliancy.  No  one  could  paint  eyes 
with  such  success  as  Gainsborough ;  they  appear  to  sparkle 
and  to  see.  Yet  when  you  examine  the  pictures  closely, 
you  find  that  the  effect  has  been  obtained  by  a  few  touches 
of  the  brush  — but  those  touches  could  only  be  given  by  one 
man. 

Although  we  have  no  portrait  of  Emma,  Lady  Hamilton 
from  Gainsborough's  brush,  we  have  more  than  one  by  him 


164  THE  HON.  MRS.  GRAHAM 

of  a  woman  equally  beautiful,  but  of  a  totally  different  type 
of  beauty.  This  was  Mary  Cathcart,  daughter  of  Lord 
Cathcart,  who  married  Thomas  Graham  of  Balgowan, 
afterwards  Lord  Lynedoch,  a  distinguished  officer,  who  was 
one  of  Wellingtons  most  able  captains  in  the  Peninsular 
War.  In  her  Gainsborough  seems  to  have  found  the  type 
of  womanly  beauty  that  he  most  admired,  for  not  only  did 
he  paint  that  superb  life-size  and  full-length  portrait  which 
is  the  gem  of  the  National  Gallery  of  Edinburgh,  but  he 
repeated  her  face  in  several  other  portraits,  and  in  one  of 
his  most  delightful  unfinished  works,  the  portrait  of  the  so- 
called  Housemaid  at  Castle  Howard,  in  which  we  find  Mrs. 
Graham's  lovely  features  under  the  pretty  cotton  cap  of  a 
maid,  standing  at  a  cottage  door,  broom  in  hand. 

There  is  a  pathetic  story  attached  to  the  portrait  of  Mrs. 
Graham  in  the  Scottish  National  Gallery  at  Edinburgh. 
When  she  sat  to  Gainsborough  she  was  nineteen  years  old 
and  had  just  returned  from  her  honeymoon,  which  had  been 
passed  upon  the  Continent.  She  died  when  only  thirty- 
five,  after  a  marriage  of  such  unclouded  happiness  that  her 
heart-broken  husband  could  not  bear  to  look  upon  Gains- 
borough's life-like  portrait  of  her  as  a  bride.  He  conse- 
quently had  it  bricked  up  at  one  end  of  the  drawing-room  in 
which  it  hung,  and  there  it  remained,  forgotten  until  half  a 
century  later,  when  some  alterations  being  made  in  the 
room  it  was  disclosed  as  fresh,  perfect,  and  as  brilliant  as 
on  the  last  day  when  the  great  painter  passed  his  magic 
brush  over  it. 

This  portrait  was  bequeathed  to  the  Scottish  National 


THE  HON.  MRS.   GRAHAM  165 

Gallery  by  Mr.  Graham  of  Redgorton ;  and  the  public  had 
their  first  view  of  its  incomparable  loveliness  at  the  Man- 
chester Exhibition  in  1857.  Since  this  beautiful  work 
became  national  property  few  of  Gainsborough's  paintings 
have  had  such  a  popular  vogue :  it  has  been  engraved, 
etched,  copied  and  photographed  times  beyond  number. 
Nor  is  its  popularity  a  matter  of  surprise.  If  one  were 
asked  to  give  one's  opinion  as  to  which  was  the  typical 
work  of  Gainsborough's  genius,  I  for  one,  would  give  mine 
in  favour  of  this  portrait  of  Mary  Graham,  for  it  combines 
in  the  intensely  high-bred  look  of  this  beautiful  young 
creature  in  her  shimmering  silks,  her  exquisite  features,  and 
even  in  the  plume  of  ostrich  feathers  in  her  hair,  all  the 
artist's  finest  qualities  of  distinction  in  portraiture  and 
beauty  of  colouring. 

The  unfinished  life-size  portrait  of  Mrs.  Graham  at 
Castle  Howard  is  said  to  have  been  seen  in  its  uncompleted 
state  by  the  fifth  Earl  of  Carlisle,  who  was  so  delighted 
with  it  that  he  would  not  hear  of  the  artist  putting  another 
stroke  upon  it,  and  purchased  it  upon  the  spot.  It  is  a 
most  interesting  painting,  for  it  shows  the  manner  in  which 
Gainsborough  "  laid  in "  his  figures,  and  the  vigorous 
brushwork.  Some  of  the  accessories  are  painted  in  Van- 
dyke brown,  the  only  colour  besides  being  a  few  touches  of 
carmine  in  the  cheeks  and  on  the  lips,  but  the  small  amount 
of  actual  performance  compared  with  the  immense  effect  of 
beauty  is  amazing,  and  to  the  artist,  makes  this  unfinished 
picture  one  of  Gainsborough's  most  interesting  works.  It 
is  seven  feet  ten  inches  long,  by  four  feet  eleven  inches 


1 66  THE  HON.  MRS.   GRAHAM 

wide.  In  the  portrait  of  Mrs.  Graham  at  Edinburgh  the 
dress  has  been  more  elaborately  painted  than  is  usually  the 
case  with  Gainsborough's  portraits  of  women.  The  upper 
portion  is  creamy  white,  contrasting  very  happily  with  the 
pale  mulberry  skirt,  and  this  stands  out  in  contrast  with  a 
group  of  massive  foliage  against  a  somewhat  lurid  sky. 
Gainsborough,  after  painting  Mrs.  Graham,  seems  to  have 
been  ever  haunted  by  her  beautiful,  sad  young  face,  for,  in 
addition  to  her  many  portraits  he  introduced  her  in  the 
guise  of  a  peasant  into  several  of  his  landscapes. 


THE  HON.  MRS.  GRAHAM 

(  Gainsborough) 

CH.  MOREAU-VAUTHIER 

ON  the  days  when  he  was  moved,  when  the  view  of 
his  model  awakened  the  sacred  enthusiasm,  full  of 
simplicity  and  abandon,  Gainsborough  painted  Mrs.  Siddons 
(National  Gallery),  Mary  Robinson  (Wallace  Collection), 
the  Morning  Walk  (Lord  Rothschild's  collection),  the 
Princess  Elizabeth  of  Hesse-Hambourg  (Windsor),  or  Mrs. 
Graham  (Edinburgh  National  Gallery). 

Burger  says  :  "  I  fully  believe  that,  after  the  Miss  Nelly 
O'Brien  by  Reynolds,  Mrs.  Graham  is  the  most  enchanting 
of  all  Englishwomen  in  painting.  ...  A  flower  of 
the  aristocracy  and  a  flower  of  colouring.  One  would 
willingly  say  of  this  painting  that  it  smells  sweet. 

If  this  portrait  could  speak  it  could  relate  a  love  romance 
worthy  to  tempt  the  pen  of  an  Edgar  Allan  Poe.  The 
daughter  of  Lord  Cathcart  and  wife  of  General  Graham, 
Lord  Lynedoch,  Mrs.  Graham  died  young,  leaving  a  hus- 
band inconsolable.  When  she  was  gone,  her  image 
painted  by  Gainsborough  remained.  I  have  known  poor 
hearts  that  in  such  a  case  would  have  clung  with  all  the 
might  of  their  tenderness  to  this  reflection,  to  this  phantom. 
I  could  name  an  artist  who  spent  hours  in  contemplation 


1 68  THE  HON.  MRS.   GRAHAM 

before  the  portrait  of  the  dead  loved  one.  Seated  before 
the  easel,  the  altar  raised  to  the  absent  one,  he  kept  his 
gaze  constantly  fixed  upon  his  spouse,  took  her  for  witness 
for  his  words,  caused  her  to  share  in  the  conversation  like 
a  present  living  person,  a  silent  but  attentive  listener. 
This  affecting  scene  finally  ended  in  carrying  away  even 
the  visitor ;  he  surprised  himself  in  mechanically  addressing 
himself  now  to  one  and  now  to  the  other  member  of  this 
pair  who  would  not  consent  to  be  disunited ;  and  when  he 
took  his  leave,  moved,  troubled  and  stunned,  he  felt  as  if 
he  were  returning  from  a  world  which  had  no  knowledge 
of  the  separations  of  death. 

General  Graham  was  not  an  artist,  nor  a  dreamer,  nor 
one  weakly  to  indulge  tender  reminiscences ;  he  loved  with 
his  senses  alone;  doubtless  he  had  never  thought  of  a 
higher  life,  perhaps,  even,  he  did  not  believe  in  one.  His 
nature  being  a  material,  nervous  and  practical  one,  he  was 
overwhelmed  on  the  first  occasion  when  he  saw  his  wife's 
portrait  again  after  her  death.  That  canvas  that  celebrated 
a  past  gone  never  to  return  appeared  to  him  in  the  light  of 
a  terrible  irony,  a  crushing  memory  and  a  menace  of  eternal 
desire.  After  fleeing  from  the  chamber  in  which  the 
phantom  reigned,  he  gave  orders  to  have  the  windows  and 
doors  sealed  up.  In  that  passionate  nature,  love  inspired 
the  action  of  a  poet.  Being  persuaded  that  in  the  frame 
dwelt  a  sublime  and  redoubtable  power  which  he  must  re- 
spect, he  gave  it  a  tomb. 

This  masterpiece  slept  among  the  shadows  for  half  a 
century.  When  its  asylum  was  finally  violated,  in  the 


THE  HON.  MRS.  GRAHAM  169 

chamber  still  intact,  the  little  blue  slippers  of  the  portrait 
were  found  beside  the  picture, — the  same  slippers  that  the 
young  woman  had  worn  when  she  went  to  pose  before 
Gainsborough. 


LA  DUCHESSE  DE  CHARTRES  AS  HEBE 

(Nattier) 

LADY  DILKE 

IN  all  portraits  by  Rigaud  and  Largilliere,  in  those  even 
by  lesser  men,  such  as  Robert  Tournieres,  the  step- 
father of  le  Moine,  whose  work  in  this  class  may  some- 
times remind  us  of  Rigaud,  we  find  the  practiced  habit  of 
careful  individualization  of  the  sitter.  This  essential 
feature  of  good  portraiture  never  seems  to  have  troubled 
Jean-Marc  Nattier,  the  painter  who  eclipsed  Largilliere  in 
court  favour.  He  entirely  lacked  the  virility  that  distin- 
guished the  illustrious  portrait  painters  of  the  previous  gen- 
eration. Bachaumont  notes  his  gift  for  catching  likenesses, 
his  skill  in  making  each  likeness  flattering  when  dealing 
with  women,  and  adds  u  ses  habillements  sont  galants,  mats 
manierez  et  sentent  ce  qtfon  appelle  le  mannequin  il 

ebaucke  bien  et  de  bonne  couleur  et  quand  il  vient  a  finlr  il  la 
gaste,  elle  devient  livide  .  .  .  son  gendre  M.  Tocque,  lui  est 
bien  superieur."  This  desire  to  please,  to  flatter,  to  be 
"  galant  "  makes  Nattier  in  some  respects  the  typical  por- 
trait painter  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV. ;  he  has  undoubted 
charm  in  spite  of  mannerisms  verging  on  the  absurd,  but 
his  colour,  especially  in  the  flesh  tints,  too  often  justifies 
Bachaumont's  criticisms. 

The  story  of  his  early  days  vividly  reflects  the  want  of 


LA  DUCHESSE  DE  CHARTRES  AS  HEBE     17 1 

cohesion  and  direction  from  which  the  younger  generation 
of  artists  were  then  suffering.  His  godfather,  Jean 
Jouvenet,  would  have  had  him  go  to  Rome  (1709),  but  Nat- 
tier found  occupation  in  making  drawings  from  the  Rubens 
series  in  the  Luxembourg,  more  or  less  well,  for  engrav- 
ing. He  tried  historical  painting,  but  did  not  decide  to  pre- 
sent himself  to  the  Academy  till  he  was  over  thirty,  and 
was  then  received  a  year  later  than  his  younger  rival  Jean 
Raoux. 

He  had  always  inclined  to  this  class  of  work,  for  as  early 
as  1712  we  find  him  quarrelling  with  Klingstedt,  the 
miniature  painter,  for  the  price  of  a  portrait  which  he  had 
painted,  and  which  "  ledit  Clinchetet "  had  attempted  to  re- 
move without  paying  for  it.  Mme.  Tocque  also  tells  us 
that  the  first  work  produced  by  her  father,  after  his  recep- 
tion by  the  Academy  on  the  picture  representing  "  Perseus 
showing  the  head  of  Medusa  at  the  wedding  of  Phyneus," 
which  is  now  at  Tours,  was  a  large  allegorical  portrait  of 
the  family  of  M.  de  la  Motte,  u  Tresorier  de  France."  She 
adds,  however,  that  the  portraits  which  made  his  reputation 
were  those  of  Marshal  Saxe,  exhibited  on  the  Place 
Dauphine  in  1725,  of  Mile,  de  Clermont  and  of  Mile,  de 
Lambesc  as  Minerva,  arming  her  younger  brother,  the 
Comte  de  Brionne,  which  appeared  at  the  Salon  of  1737, 
and  which  is  now  in  the  Louvre.  The  Mademoiselle  de 
Clermont  aux  eaux  de  Cbantilly  is  one  of  the  finest  Nattiers 
of  its  class,  for  the  style  shows  a  rare  combination  of  ease 
and  dignity,  and  the  drawing  is  less  defective  than  usual. 
In  the  same  group  may  be  ranked  his  admirable  portrait  of 


172    LA  DUCHESSE  DE  CHARTRES  AS  HEBE 

the  Duchesse  de  Chartres  en  Hebe,  deesse  de  la  jeunesse,  which, 
exhibited  at  the  Salon  of  1745,  is  now  at  Stockholm.  This 
remarkable  work  is  signed  and  dated  "  Nattier  pinxit  1744," 
and  he  utilized  the  combination  frequently,  never,  perhaps, 
with  better  success  than  in  the  portrait  of  Louise- Henriette 
de  Bourbon-  Conti,  duchesse  d*  Orleans,  painted  in  1751.  The 
Duchess,  wearing  blue  and  white  draperies,  and  accom- 
panied by  the  necessary  eagle,  makes  a  pleasing  picture  in 
a  light  scale  of  colour,  the  blue  employed,  as  in  the  portrait 
of  the  Duchesse  de  Chartres,  is  of  an  unusually  fine 
quality,  but  it  shares  the  defects  common  to  all  Nattier's 
work.  Even  Mademoiselle  de  Clermont  loses  that  brilliant 
vitality  and  character  which  Rosalba  Camera  has  recorded 
in  the  pastel  still  preserved  at  Chantilly,  and  wears  the  same 
insipid  air,  accompanied  by  the  same  irreproachable  perfec- 
tions which  Nattier  has  conferred  with  unstinted  generosity 
on  all  his  sitters,  whether  he  travesties  the  duchesses  of  the 
house  of  Orleans  as  Hebes,  or  depicts  as  Vestals  the  less  at- 
tractive daughters  of  Louis  XV. 

Nattier's  work,  however,  especially  on  a  large  scale,  early 
showed  itself  superior  to  that  of  Raoux.  A  fine  official 
portrait  by  him — which  was  painted  shortly  after  the  execu- 
tion of  the  Mademoiselle  de  Clermont,  for  it  is  signed  and 
dated  "Nattier  pinxit,"  1732,  figured  in  1898  at  the  exhi- 
bition of  works  of  the  French  school  in  the  Guildhall.  It 
was  described  by  its  owner,  M.  Bischoffsheim,  as  the 
"Due  de  Penthievre,  born  1725,  and  youngest  legitimate 
son  of  Louis  XIV."  Here  we  have  a  perfect  Comedy  of 
Errors !  For  "  legitimate,"  we  must,  of  course,  read 


LA  DUCHESSE  DE  CHARTRES  AS  HEBE     173 

"legitimized,"  but  in  1732,  the  due  de  Penthievre,  son 
of  the  Comte  de  Toulouse,  and  grandson  of  Louis 
XIV.,  was  only  seven  years  old,  and  the  subject  of 
Nattier' s  portrait  is  a  man  of  at  least  seven  or  eight-and- 
twenty.  He  wears  magnificent  state  robes,  and  is  accom- 
panied by  an  attendant  who  draws  away  from  the  proud 
figure,  clad  in  grey  and  black,  the  folds  of  an  immense 
cloak,  heavy  with  gold  embroidery.  It  is  probably  the  por- 
trait of  that  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  son  of  the  Regent,  who 
was  then  on  the  point  of  retiring  to  the  Abbey  of  St. 
Genevieve,  where  he  spent  the  latter  part  of  his  life.  In 
any  case,  the  work  is  so  capable  that  it  must  have  increased 
the  painter's  reputation,  and,  in  the  following  year,  when 
Raoux  died  and  the  Grand  Prior  had  to  appoint  another 
artist  to  finish  his  pictures  in  the  Temple,  Nattier  was 
obviously  the  proper  person  to  select.  There  he  continued 
to  receive,  in  the  lodgings  attached  to  his  post,  that  crowd 
of  sitters  whom  he  depicted  under  the  most  fantastic  dis- 
guises,— naiads,  nymphs,  goddesses,  all  furnished  with 
the  most  appropriate  emblems  or  attributes.  u  Nul  plus 
que  lui,  n'a  fait  une  plus  grande  consommation  cTaigles  et  ae 
colombes"  His  situation  at  the  Temple  and  the  patronage 
of  the  "  plupart  des  princes  et  princesses  de  la  maison  de  Lor- 
raine "  did  not,  however,  bring  him  into  direct  relations  with 
the  Court.  It  was  not  until  1740,  when  the  Duchess  of 
Mazarin  brought  her  two  celebrated  nieces,  the  Mademoi- 
selles de  Nesle,  notorious  in  later  years  as  the  Duchesses 
de  Chateauroux  and  de  Flavacourt,  that  fortune  and  favour 
came  to  his  doors.  The  portraits  of  these  two  girls,  one  as 


174    LA  DUCHESSE  DE  CHARTRES  AS  HEBE 

"  Point  du  Jour,"  the  other  as  "  Silence,"  attracted  so 
much  attention  that  the  Queen  herself  desired  to  see  them, 
and  ordered  of  Nattier  a  portrait  of  Madame  Henriette 
"  En  Flore,"  which  was  immediately  repeated,  with  a  com- 
panion portrait  of  Madame  Adelaide  "  En  Diane "  for 
Choisy.  Both  of  these  pictures  have  been  identified  by 
M.  de  Nolhac  in  the  collections  at  Versailles.  That  of 
Madame  Henriette  is  signed  and  dated  1742,  and  is  cer- 
tainly the  original  portrait,  painted  for  the  Queen,  for,  after 
his  reputation  was  made,  it  seems  to  have  been  Nattier' s 
practice  to  sign  only  the  first  example  of  each  of  his 
works.  In  this  way  we  are  guarded  from  accepting  as  his 
the  numerous  repetitions  made  by  his  various  copyists — 
Prevost,  Coqueret,  de  la  Roche,  Hellard  and  others. 

Now  began  the  great  period  of  Nattier's  success,  during 
which  he  painted  that  important  series  of  portraits  which 
includes  every  member  of  the  royal  family  and  every  per- 
sonage of  note  about  the  Court  of  Louis  XV.  and  his 
Queen.  These  Court  portraits,  many  of  which  are 
simply  treated,  are  amongst  his  most  honourable  achieve- 
ments. If  his  Madame  Henriette  "  En  Flore  "  is  a  charm- 
ing work,  his  admirable  portrait  of  her  mother  is  even 
better,  and  the  Madame  Adelaide  of  the  Louvre  loses  no 
attraction  from  the  absence  of  all  fantastic  disguise.  She 
wears  her  blue  velvet  and  sable  with  a  little  touch  of  digni- 
fied formality ;  her  pretty  flesh  tints  are  carried  out  by  the 
white  leaves  of  the  book  on  her  lap,  and  the  coat  of  her 
little  dog  and  the  architectural  background- — conventionally 
helped  by  a  red  curtain,  divided  from  the  figure  by  a 


LA  DUCHESSE  DE  CHARTRES  AS  HEBE    175 

cushion  covered  in  deep  orange — has  an  appropriate  and 
stately  air.  The  portraits  of  the  "  dames  de  France,"  all  of 
whom  Nattier  painted  three  times  "  en  grands  tableaux  et  en 
pied"  were  in  great  favour,  and  replicas  are  not  uncom- 
mon. M.  Groult,  whose  "portrait  d'une  Inconnue"  in 
blue  and  white  with  a  rose  in  her  hair,  is  one  of  the  pret- 
tiest and  most  individual  of  Nattier's  small  portraits,  has 
also  a  half-length  repeat  of  the  Madame  Adelaide  of  the 
Galerie  La  Caze,  which  is  in  a  beautiful  state,  but  Madame 
Victoire  en  Vestale  at  Hertford  House,  is  amongst  the  more 
important.  I  am  inclined  though,  on  the  whole,  to  agree 
with  Mariette,  that  his  charming  portrait  of  Marie  Lec- 
zinska,  of  which  there  is  a  version  at  Versailles,  is  his  best 
work.  u  Celuy  qu'il  fit  de  la  Reyne,  et  qu*on  a  vu  expose  au 
sallon  des  Tuilleries  en  174.8,  m*a  paru  un  de  ses  meilleurs 
outrages  et  que  je  mets  fort  audessus  des  portraits  des  dames 
de  France,  qui  pourtant  out  en  un  grand  succes"  Words 
which  we  may  apply  to  the  portrait  by  him  of  the  Queen, 
which  is,  I  believe,  the  original  now  at  Hertford  House. 
In  the  following  year,  Nattier  painted  the  Frankfort 
banker  Leerse  and  his  wife,  and  from  the  journal  of  Leerse 
we  get  a  glimpse  of  Nattier's  practice.  "J'ai  ete"  he 
writes  on  November  3,  1749,  "  ckez  Nattier,  peintre  tres 
fameux,  dout  je  me  suis  tirer  de  meme  que  mon  epouse.  Je  n'ai 
ete  assis  que  trois  fois  et  elle  quatre" 

Casanova,  who  saw  Nattier  in  1750,  tells  us  that  "mal- 
gr'e  son  age  avance,  son  beau  talent  semblait  etre  dans  toute  sa 
fraicheur"  yet  in  spite  of  this  youthful  vigour  and  appar- 
ently continued  vogue,  Nattier  amassed  no  fortune.  He 


176    LA  DUCHESSE  DE  CHARTRES  AS  HEBE 

managed  his  affairs  ill,  he  had  a  delicate  wife  and  nine  chil- 
dren ;  but  he  also  reproached  himself  with  lending  money 
too  easily,  and  with  spending  too  much  on  "  curiositez" 
an  avowal  which  reminds  us  of  the  exquisitely  enamelled 
gold  snuff-box  stolen  from  him  when  "  sortant  du  spectacle 
des  danseurs  de  corde  etabli  sur  le  boulevart"  It  must  also 
be  borne  in  mind  that  the  irregular  and  incomplete  pay- 
ment for  Court  commissions  contributed,  in  all  probability, 
to  disturb  his  fortunes. 


EMMA  LADY  HAMILTON 

(Romney) 

HUMPHREY  WARD 

ROMNEY  had  reached  his  eight-and-fortieth  year, 
and  had  been  living  six  years  in  what  he  himself 
called  "this  cursed  drudgery  of  portrait-painting,"  when 
there  came  before  him  a  new  sitter,  destined  to  exercise  a 
real  influence  upon  his  life,  and,  if  we  may  so  adapt  a 
phrase  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  "  immeasurably  to  increase  his 
chances  of  immortality,"  and,  by  his  agency,  her  own 
chances  too.  This  was  Amy  Lyon,  or  Emily  or  Emma 
Hart,  the  future  Lady  Hamilton.  In  this  place  it  is  not 
necessary  to  dwell  at  any  length  upon  her  adventures 
before  she  came  to  Romney.  The  truth  is  that  not  much 
is  really  known  of  those  years,  though  there  are  semi- 
mythical  accounts  in  plenty,  and  we  only  begin  to  be 
really  acquainted  with  Emma  when  Romney  paints  her  and 
speaks  of  her,  and,  still  better,  when,  in  and  after  1786, 
she  comes  to  write  those  letters  to  Charles  Greville,  to  Sir 
William  Hamilton,  to  Romney,  and  finally  to  Nelson, 
which  are  preserved  in  the  late  Mr.  Alfred  Morrison's  col- 
lection, and  which  were  privately  printed  by  him  in  two 
invaluable  volumes.  There  is  one  exception :  the  same 
book  gives  us  the  letters  exchanged  between  Emma  and 
Charles  Greville  in  1781,  when  her  earliest  protector,  Sir 


178  EMMA  LADY  HAMILTON 

H.  Featherstonhaugh,  of  Up  Park,  Hampshire,  had  cast 
her  adrift,  and  when  she  turned  to  Greville  almost  in 
despair  for  herself  and  for  the  child  that  was  about  to  be 
born.  Greville,  the  smiling  voluptuary  whom  Sir  Joshua 
painted  in  one  of  his  Dilettanti  pictures,  was  not  the  man 
to  refuse  such  an  appeal  from  a  creature  so  exquisite  as 
Emma  and  her  mother — who  passed  under  the  name  of 
"  Mrs.  Cadogan  " — and  installed  them  in  a  little  house  in 
the  Edgeware  Road.  There,  in  great  retirement,  she 
passed  five  years  of  happiness,  seeing  nobody  but  a  few  of 
Greville's  friends,  and  among  them  his  uncle,  Sir  William 
Hamilton,  the  British  Minister  at  Naples,  whose  wife  was 
at  that  time  dying,  and  who  seems  to  have  been  already 
impressed  by  the  auburn-haired  goddess  whom  Greville 
described  as  his  "  tea-maker  of  the  Edgeware  road."  And 
in  the  beginning  of  1782  she  was  brought  to  Romney  to 
sit  for  her  portrait.  As  Greville  was  brother  of  Lord 
Warwick,  several  members  of  whose  family  had  already 
been  painted  by  Romney  with  the  greatest  success,  it  was 
natural  enough  that  he  should  bring  his  mistress  to  Caven- 
dish Square,  though  he  can  hardly  have  suspected  that 
there  would  be  that  pre-ordained  harmony — as  the 
Eighteenth  Century  philosophers  would  have  said — be- 
tween artist  and  sitter  as  quickly  proved  to  be  the  case. 
We  know  that  in  later  years  many  painters  tried  their  skill 
upon  her — Reynolds  once,  Madame  Vigee  Le  Brun  at  least 
twice,  Angelica  KaufFmann  probably,  and  many  an  Italian 
painter  and  sculptor  to  whom  she  sat  in  Sir  William's 
painting  room  at  Naples.  But  none  of  these  artists,  not 


EMMA  LADY  HAMILTON    ("NATURE") 


EMMA  LADY  HAMILTON  179 

even  Reynolds  himself,  in  the  well-known  Bacchante, 
made  of  "  the  most  beautiful  woman  in  the  world  "  any- 
thing that  was  distinctive,  anything  that  was  much  removed 
from  the  commonplace.  It  is  Romney  alone  who  has  pre- 
served the  life  of  those  wonderful  features,  of  that  radiant 
hair,  and  of  the  multitudinous  phases  of  expression  through 
which  this  born  actress,  inspired  by  his  suggestions,  passed 
seemingly  at  will.  Her  name  remains  inseparably  bound, 
though  in  very  different  ways,  with  the  names  of  two  great 
men,  a  hero  and  a  painter.  In  the  Cbronique  scandaleuse  of 
a  hundred  years  ago,  Emma  belongs  to  Nelson;  in  the 
history  of  art  she  belongs  to  Romney. 

The   Diary  for  the  early  months  of  1782  has  a  large 
number  of  entries  of  "  a  lady  at  12,"  "  a  lady  at  3,"  "  Mrs. 

at  y2  past  12,"  and  so  on,  but  it  is  not  till  April  20 

that  we  find  the  entry  "  Mrs.  H*  at  1 2,"  a  note  frequently 
repeated  either  as  "  Mrs.  Hl,"  or  "  Mrs.  H."  The  form 
of  the  entry  is  significant.  It  seems  to  mean  that  Greville, 
conscious  of  the  irregularity  of  their  relations,  wished  her 
to  be  anonymous  at  first,  and  that  in  a  few  weeks  this  had 
made  way  for  what  is  so  rare  in  the  Diaries,  the  familiarity 
of  an  abbreviation.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  interesting  to 
learn  from  John  Romney's  Memoirs  what  the  first  portrait 
was.  "  It  was,"  he  says,  "  that  beautiful  one,  so  full  of 
naivete,  in  which  she  is  represented  with  a  little  spaniel 
dog  under  her  arm."  This  is  the  picture  that  was  made 
popular  by  Meyer's  contemporary  engraving  called  Nature, 
coloured  impressions  of  which  have  often  been  sold,  during 
the  prevalence  of  the  present  craze,  for  two  hundred  pounds 


l8o  EMMA  LADY  HAMILTON 

or  more.  But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  original  picture, 
for  which  Greville  paid  twenty  guineas  ?  It  went  subse- 
quently to  Sir  William  Hamilton,  was  sold  at  his  sale  to  a 
Mr.  Lister  Parker,  and  passed  afterwards  to  Mr.  Fawkes 
of  Farnley,  Turner's  friend.  After  the  last  Romney  exhi- 
bition Mr.  Fawkes's  son  yielded  to  the  golden  importuni- 
ties of  a  buyer,  and  sold  the  picture ;  and  since  that  time  I 
believe  that  it  has  been  sold  at  least  twice,  the  last  time  for 
something  close  upon  .£20,000. 

Doubtless  Romney  himself  thought  less  of  the  Nature 
than  of  the  full-length  that  he  began  at  the  same  time, 
the  Circe  with  the  beasts  that  should  have  been  painted  by 
Gilpin,  but  were  not.  Always  hankering  after  some  mode 
of  escape  from  "  the  cursed  drudgery,"  he  found  in  Emma 
not  only  a  woman  of  perfect  beauty  both  of  form  and 
feature,  but  a  born  painter's  model — a  woman  who  had  an 
instinct  for  posing  in  character,  and  who  could  adapt  her- 
self with  the  readiness  of  genius  to  any  part  that  the  imagi- 
nation or  reading  of  the  painter  or  his  friends  might  chance 
to  suggest. 

Even  his  devotion  to  the  adored  features  could  not  cure 
Romney  of  that  inveterate  habit  to  which  Cumberland  and 
all  the  other  commentators  refer — his  swiftness  in  begin- 
ning, his  slowness  or  indecision  in  finishing.  He  finished 
the  St.  Cecilia,  the  Sensibility ;  one,  perhaps  two,  versions 
of  the  Bacchante;  Cassandra,  which  went  to  the  Shake- 
speare Gallery  ;  the  Alope,  and  the  Circe ;  and  above  all  that 
famous  Spinstress,  which  Greville  would  have  so  much 
liked  to  keep,  but  was  obliged  to  forego.  Besides  these, 


EMMA  LADY  HAMILTON  l8l 

there  were  several  finished  pictures  that  were  actual  por- 
traits, though  some  of  them  bore  fancy  names.  Nature  we 
have  mentioned ;  there  was  also  the  equally  famous  Emma 
or  The  Straw  Hat,  and,  besides  one  or  two  more,  there 
was  the  half-length  in  a  black  gown  and  pink  petticoat 
"  sent  to  Naples,"  one  of  the  pictures  painted  for  the  in- 
satiable Sir  William  Hamilton,  who  must  fill  his  house 
with  pictures  of  her,  good  like  Romney's,  or  bad  like  the 
Roman  artists'.  And  finally  there  were  the  two  pictures 
of  Calypso  and  A  Magdalen,  painted  in  1791,  for  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  and  therefore  of  special  interest  in  rela- 
tion to  the  lady  herself. 

How  Romney  regarded  her  departure  in  1786,  we  are 
left  to  infer  from  a  few  scattered  indications,  and  from  his 
known  conduct  after  her  return  and  marriage.  Evidently 
it  made  him  very  miserable.  His  work  went  on  unabated ; 
sitters  for  1786  are  as  numerous  as  ever,  and  he  is  painting 
some  of  his  finest  pictures,  such  as  the  H^ilbraham-Bootle 
Boys,  the  Mrs.  Carmhhael  Smyth,  and  the  Lady  Milner. 
But  overwork  is  no  remedy  for  what  is  really  a  bereavement, 
and  it  is  at  this  time  that  we  begin  to  find  increasing  refer- 
ences to  the  depression  of  spirits  which  is  to  characterize 
Romney  henceforth,  and  to  lead  to  hypochondria,  and 
finally  to  develop  into  that  sad  state  into  which  he  sank 
soon  after  his  sixtieth  year.  Sometimes  indeed  he  seeks 
consolation  in  working  at  the  pictures  that  he  has  begun 
from  her.  It  was  in  November  of  this  year,  eight  months 
after  her  departure,  that  Hay  ley  "  happened  to  find  him  one 
morning  contemplating  by  himself  a  recently-coloured  head. 


1 82  EMMA  LADY  HAMILTON 

on  a  small  canvas.  It  was  the  Sensibility,  with  Emma's 
features.  Next  year  BoydelPs  great  scheme  of  the  Shake- 
speare Gallery  was  projected,  Romney  having  been  one  of 
the  first  artists  consulted  (his  son  claims  that  the  scheme 
itself  was  due  to  Romney's  suggestion) ;  and  in  the  three 
pictures  that  he  painted  for  it,  The  Tempest,  The  Infant 
Shakespeare  Nursed  by  Tragedy  and  Comedy,  and  Cassandra, 
it  was  Emma  again,  though  she  herself  was  far  away  at 
Naples,  that  served  as  model,  the  figure  of  Comedy  in  the 
second  picture  being  taken  from  her. 

Of  direct  evidence  of  the  state  of  his  feelings  towards 
Emma  during  these  years  of  her  absence  there  is  but  little ; 
while  on  her  side  we  have  only  one  or  two  perfectly  calm 
references  to  him,  as  when  she  tells  Greville  that  she  has 
"  wrote  to  Romney  "  to  send  to  Naples  "  the  picture  in  the 
black  gown." 

At  last,  at  the  end  of  May  (1791)  a  great  event  occurs 
that  pours  new  life  into  him,  or,  as  the  pedantic  Hayley 
puts  it,  "  raises  to  joyous  elevation,  the  sinking  spirits  of 
the  artist."  Emma  comes  home  !  She  has  not  announced 
herself  to  appear;  and  one  morning  "in  a  Turkish  habit," 
she  pays  the  painter  a  surprise  visit,  with  Sir  William  Ham- 
ilton in  her  train.  The  marriage  is  determined  on ;  but 
meanwhile  it  will  give  pleasure  to  all  three  that  Emma 
should  sit  daily  to  her  painter.  It  will  gratify  her  vanity, 
give  scope  to  her  histrionic  talent,  increase  the  pride  of  her 
future  husband,  and  make  Romney  believe  once  more  that 
life  is  worth  living.  On  June  19,  he  writes  to  Hayley : 
"  At  present,  and  the  greatest  part  of  the  summer,  I  shall 


EMMA  LADY  HAMILTON  183 

be  engaged  in  painting  pictures  from  the  divine  lady.  I 
cannot  give  her  any  other  epithet,  for  I  think  her  superior 
to  all  womankind."  All  the  world  is  following  her,  talking 
of  her,  "  so  that  if  she  had  not  more  good  sense  than  van- 
ity, her  brain  must  be  turned." 

But  she  comes  constantly  to  be  painted,  and  he  has  put 
on  record  the  names  of  the  pictures  that  he  has  begun — a 
Joan  of  Arc;  a  Magdalen  and  a  Bacchante  for  the  Prince  of 
Wales ;  a  companion  to  the  Bacchante  is  being  planned ; 
and  a  Constance  for  the  Shakespeare  Gallery,  though  in  point 
of  fact,  this  last  was  never  even  begun.  The  Diaries  show 
us  how  frequent  were  the  sittings ;  from  June  2  "  Mrs. 
H."  comes  every  second  day,  being  generally  the  first  sitter 
at  nine  in  the  morning.  Soon,  however,  a  cloud  comes 
over  the  "  sun  of  his  Hemispheer  " ;  the  overwrought  painter 
yields  for  a  bitter  moment,  not  to  jealousy  indeed,  for  he 
well  knows  that  she  belongs  to  Sir  William,  but  to  the 
dread  that  he  is  losing  her  friendship.  He  goes  to  see  her 
act  at  Sir  William's  house,  admires  her  prodigiously — for 
"  her  acting  is  simple,  grand,  terrible  and  pathetic,"  and 
tells  her  so,  to  her  great  satisfaction.  "  But  alas,  soon  after 
I  discovered  an  alteration  in  her  conduct  to  me.  A  cold- 
ness and  neglect  seemed  to  have  taken  the  place  of  her  re- 
peated declarations  of  regard."  The  poor  man  is  pro- 
foundly miserable,  but  after  a  fortnight,  when  she  has 
returned  from  the  country,  she  comes  to  sit  again,  and  sits 
every  day ;  and  "  since  she  has  resumed  her  former  kind- 
ness," writes  the  heart-sick  painter,  "  my  health  and  spirits 
are  quite  recovered."  Romney  even  gives  a  party  in  her 


184  EMMA  LADY  HAMILTON 

honour — it  is  the  only  occasion  on  which  we  hear  of  his 
putting  his  good  house  in  Cavendish  Square  to  such  an  ex- 
cellent use.  "  She  performed  in  my  house  last  week,  sing- 
ing and  acting  before  some  of  the  nobility  with  most  aston- 
ishing power.  She  is  the  talk  of  the  whole  town,  and 
really  surpasses  everything,  both  in  singing  and  acting,  that 
ever  appeared.  Gallini  offered  her  two  thousand  pounds  a 
year,  and  two  benefits,  if  she  would  engage  with  him,  on 
which  Sir  William  said  pleasantly,  that  he  had  engaged  her 
for  life."  And  finally,  in  early  September  come  two  sig- 
nificant entries  in  the  Diary : 

Sept.  5.     Mon.  Mrs.  Hart  at  9. 
Sept.  6.     Tues.  Lady  Hamilton  at  n. 

Early  that  Tuesday  morning  Emma  had  been  married  to 
Sir  William  Hamilton  at  Marylebone  Church,  whence  she 
must  have  driven  straight  back  to  Cavendish  Square  to  give 
one  last  sitting — her  first  and  only  one  under  her  new  name 
and  in  her  regularized  position — to  the  devoted  painter. 
The  departure  for  Naples  took  place  very  soon  afterwards ; 
there  was  an  affectionate  leave-taking,  and  Romney  and 
Emma  saw  each  other  no  more.  She  returned  to  England 
indeed  before  he  died,  and  spoke  kindly  of  him  to  Hayley, 
apparently  making  tender  inquiries  about  him,  and  still  more 
about  the  portrait  of  her  that  he  had  promised  to  give  to  her 
mother,  which  was  duly  handed  over  to  her  by  Hayley  on 
December  13,  1800;  but  he  was  too  ill  to  return  to  Lon- 
don ;  the  peasant  wife  was  nursing  him ;  he  had  no  mind 
or  powers  left  for  the  Lady  from  the  land  of  the  Sirens. 


EMMA  LADY  HAMILTON  185 

For  the  first  half-century  or  more  after  his  death  his  work 
was  neglected.  Hidden  in  private  houses,  the  public  never 
saw  it;  his  biographies  did  not  interest  people;  he  had  left 
no  group  of  influential  friends  to  hand  down  his  memory. 
There  was  no  such  machinery  of  celebrity  in  his  case  as 
had  existed  so  abundantly  in  Sir  Joshua's,  who  lived  not 
only  by  his  pictures  but  by  a  multitude  of  lovely  engravings 
and  by  the  written  and  spoken  word  of  colleagues,  pupils, 
and  friends.  So  Romney's  fame  may  almost  be  said  to  have 
died  away  during  the  dark  ages  between  1820  and  1850; 
and  Christie's  catalogues  show  that  in  those  days  he  was 
ignored  by  collectors  and  by  galleries,  such  as  then  existed. 
In  the  general  revival  of  aesthetic  intelligence  which  be- 
gan about  the  middle  of  the  century — a  revival  of  which 
the  Pre-Raphaelite  movement,  the  eloquence  of  Ruskin, 
and  the  growth  of  a  new  class  of  wealthy  amateurs  were  so 
many  symptoms  and  conditions,  Romney  began  to  emerge 
once  more.  "Old  Masters"  exhibitions,  after  1870, 
brought  him  before  the  eyes  of  everybody,  at  a  time  when, 
strange  to  say,  a  couple  of  pretty  but  unimportant  heads 
alone  represented  him  in  the  National  Gallery.  It  is  un- 
necessary to  follow  any  further  the  growth  of  his  popular- 
ity, for  it  is  written  in  a  score  of  Romney  publications,  in  a 
hundred  new  prints,  and  in  the  records  of  a  multitude  of 
exhibitions,  culminating  in  that  which  was  held  all  through 
the  year  1900  at  the  Grafton  Gallery.  Enough  to  say  that 
the  world  has  once  more  discovered,  that  a  fine  Romney  is 
a  fine  possession ;  while  those  judges  whose  interest  in  art 
is  wholly  non-acquisitive  have  thought  it  worth  while  to 


1 86  EMMA  LADY  HAMILTON 

take  him  seriously,  and  have  on  the  whole  decided,  though 
discriminatingly  and  with  many  reserves,  that  the  amateurs 
are  right. 

The  first  point  on  which  all  the  authorities  agree  is  as  to 
Romney's  sincerity.  Never  was  there  an  artist  who  lived 
more  wholly  in  his  art.  "  In  his  painting-room,"  said  his 
pupil  Robinson,  "  he  seemed  to  have  the  highest  enjoyment 
of  life,  and  the  more  he  painted  the  greater  flow  of  spirits 
he  acquired."  It  is  true  that,  by  one  of  the  ironies  of  his- 
tory, it  was  not  primarily  in  portrait-painting  that  he  was 
interested,  but  in  those  larger  schemes  and  subjects  to 
which,  according  to  the  classification  of  his  time,  he  gave  a 
higher  place.  u  His  heart  and  soul,"  said  his  friend  the 
great  Flaxman,  "  were  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of  historical 
and  ideal  painting " — the  paintings  in  which  he  was  des- 
tined to  produce  but  few  finished  works,  and  those  failures. 
Men  and  women,  in  themselves,  interested  him  but  little  j 
and  from  this  fact  there  came  at  once  his  shrinking  from 
society  and  his  limitations  as  a  portrait-painter.  "  A  new 
face,"  writes  one  of  the  keenest  and,  in  Romney's  case, 
one  of  the  most  severe  of  critics,1  "  set  him  no  new  prob- 
lem " ;  that  is  to  say,  he  was  not  a  searching  investigator 
into  character,  as  were  the  great  Florentines,  and  as  Velas- 
quez was,  and  as  are  the  best  of  the  moderns.  "  He 
merely  moved  the  parts  of  the  mask  a  little  about,  so  that 
the  features  by  their  spacing  might  approach  to  a  likeness," 
and  hence  a  superficial  mutual  resemblance  among  Rom- 
neys,  a  certain  clinging  to  a  pattern  in  the  forms  of  faces, 
1  Mr.  D.  S.  MacColl. 


EMMA  LADY  HAMILTON  187 

in  the  set  of  the  head,  in  the  way  the  sitter  looks  out  of  the 
canvas.  It  is  curious  that  Flaxman,  in  his  studied  praise 
of  Romney,  and  Gainsborough,  in  his  spontaneous  and  un- 
willing praise  of  Reynolds,  should  have  happened  on  the 
same  word  u  various."  Everybody  admits  it  in  the  case  of 
the  great  President ;  but  it  is  not  so  true  of  Romney,  who 
seems  to  have  been  constantly  thinking,  as  he  posed  a  sitter, 
of  form  as  the  antique  sculptors  whom  he  loved  had  taught 
him  to  regard  it. 

What  is  it,  then,  that  gives  Romney  his  hold  upon  this 
generation,  and  will  continue  to  give  him  a  hold  so  long  as 
a  love  of  art  endures  among  us  ?  In  part,  of  course,  it  is 
because  he  shares  with  Reynolds  and  Gainsborough  the 
good  fortune  of  having  kept  alive  for  us  a  society  of  which 
the  fascination  is  enduring — that  limited  and  privileged 
society  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  which  has  realized  such 
a  perfect  art  of  living,  and  with  which  we  can  clasp  hands 
across  the  gulf,  as  we  cannot  with  the  men  and  women  of 
Charles  the  Second's  time,  or  even  of  Queen  Anne's. 
Much  more  is  it  because,  by  temperament  and  training, 
Romney  was  an  artist  in  love  with  loveliness ;  because  he 
found  it  in  the  women  and  children  of  his  time,  and 
stamped  it  on  countless  canvases. 

To  our  problem-haunted  painters  of  to-day,  it  may  seem 
that  his  sense  of  form,  as  the  above-quoted  critic  has  said, 
was  "  generic  and  superficial "  ;  they  may  condemn  him 
because  he  did  not  try  to  penetrate  deep  into  character,  and 
because  he  simplified  too  much,  like  the  Greek  sculptors. 
The  lover  of  mere  human  beauty  will  care  little  for  such 


1 88  EMMA  LADY  HAMILTON 

objections,  provided  that  a  portrait  gives  him  the  essentials 
of  a  beautiful  face  — 

"  The  witchery  of  eyes,  the  grace  that  tips 
The  inexpressible  douceur  of  the  lips," 

— and  has  blended  them  with  the  aristocratic  dignity  of  the 
Lady  Sligo,  or  with  the  melting  sweetness  of  many  of  the 
sketches  of  Emma.  This  is  what  he  finds  in  every  first- 
rate  Romney;  and  he  finds  much  more.  He  finds  pure 
and  unfaded  colour,  the  fruit  of  the  painter's  knowledge 
and  of  a  self-restraint  which  forbade  him  to  search  for  com- 
plex effects  through  rash  experiments.  He  finds  a  quality 
of  painting  which,  though  it  wants  the  subtlety  and  "  pre- 
ciousness  "  that  Gainsborough  reached  instinctively  and  Sir 
Joshua  by  effort,  is  a  quality  to  which  nobody  but  a  master 
can  attain.  To  be  convinced  of  this,  we  have  only  to  look 
closely  at  the  brushwork  of  the  eyes  in  any  of  the  National 
Gallery  Romneys,  or  the  draperies  in  such  pictures  as  the 
Lady  Warwick  and  Children  or  the  Lady  Derby.  Again, 
our  lover  of  beauty  finds  his  satisfaction — and  here  the 
most  exacting  painter-critic  will  be  at  one  with  him — in 
the  u  large  and  unfrittered  design  "  which  is  the  mark  of 
almost  every  mature  Romney  without  exception.  Of  all 
his  natural  gifts  this  was  the  greatest ;  it  was  because  he 
was  a  born  designer  that  he  found  such  pleasure  and  stim- 
ulus in  the  Stanze  of  the  Vatican ;  that  he  surrounded  him- 
self with  fine  casts  from  the  antique,  and  "  would  sit  and 
consider  these  in  profound  silence  by  the  hour  "  ;  and  that, 
in  his  happiest  moments,  he  would  produce  a  group  like 


EMMA  LADY  HAMILTON  189 

the  Gower  Children^  or  such  a  masterpiece  of  line  as  the 
Lady  Bell  Hamilton.  Of  course  he  painted  too  much; 
that  is  agreed.  He  worked  too  hard ;  in  his  leisure  hours 
he  was  too  often  alone  ;  he  was  unfortunate  in  the  fact  that 
his  principal  friend  was  not  a  Diderot  or  a  Johnson,  but  a 
Hayley.  Hence  a  certain  amount  of  hasty  production,  a 
chronic  surrender  to  depression,  a  constant  search  for  sub- 
jects not  suited  to  his  art,  or  to  any  art.  But  when  all  is 
said,  he  remains  one  of  the  greatest  painters  of  the  Eight- 
eenth Century,  and  one  of  the  glories  of  the  English 
name. 


THE  SIBYL  AND  THE  LADY  WITH  A  FAN 

(Velasquez) 

CARL  JUSTI 

JEALOUSY  formed  an  ingredient  of  the  Oriental  ele- 
ment in  the  Spanish  nature.  How  reluctantly  must  a 
contemporary  of  Calderon  have  permitted  a  being  to  sit  to 
a  painter,  whom  nobody  could  look  upon  with  indifferent 
eyes !  Ladies  of  rank  lived  in  a  half  monastic,  half  Ori- 
ental seclusion,  never  appearing  on  the  promenades  or  at 
the  Corsi,  as  in  Italy.  Their  intercourse  abroad  was 
mainly  restricted  to  visits  in  sedan  chairs  especially  in  the 
wealthy  nunneries ;  even  Mass  was  usually  attended  in  the 
family  oratories. 

As,  however,  European  customs  had  penetrated  into  the 
Court  circles,  female  portrait  painting  also  was  tolerated, 
but  still  surrounded  with  all  kinds  of  precautions.  The 
originals  appear  to  have  been  little  subject  to  the  amiable 
weaknesses  of  the  sex  ;  those  qualities,  which,  at  least  ac- 
cording to  the  poets,  constituted  one  half  of  the  feminine 
charms,  were  rigorously  banished,  and  the  expression  of 
dignity  or  cold  pride,  became  the  rule. 

Hence  it  is  not  very  surprising  that  Spanish  galleries 
contain  so  few  passable  portraits  of  women,  while  the 
category  of  "beauties"  is  scarcely  represented  at  all. 
Palomino  alludes  to  the  custom  in  France,  Germany,  and 
Italy  (were  he  writing  at  present  he  would  have  to  head 


THE  LADY   WITH  A  FAN 


THE  SIBYL  AND  THE  LADY  WITH  A  FAN         IQI 

the  list  with  England),  of  exhibiting  large  and  small  por- 
traits of  distinguished  ladies  "  without  prudery  or  disguise," 
adding  that  in  Spain  people  were  much  more  punctilious. 
And  this  he  wrote  under  the  Bourbon  regime  (1723).  No 
doubt  in  the  time  of  Philip  II.,  when  the  spirit  of  the 
Renaissance  was  most  potent,  fine  Court  ladies  were 
painted  for  the  Prado  Portrait  Gallery,  but  even  these  are 
by  the  Dutch  Antonio  Moro.  Otherwise,  portraits  of 
"  beauties "  were  imported  from  Venice,  for  instance ; 
and  in  the  Museum  is  still  to  be  seen  a  Courtesan  by 
Tintoretto,  of  which  several  copies  have  been  made.  And 
Titian  himself  sent  to  Madrid  that  likeness  of  his  fair 
Lavinia,  adapted,  however,  to  Spanish  taste  as  Herodias 
with  the  head  of  John  the  Baptist. 

At  the  Court  of  Philip  IV.,  also,  relieved  as  it  otherwise 
was  from  many  prejudices,  our  master  was  not  called  upon 
to  paint  many  ladies.  Is  this  to  be  regretted  ?  No  doubt 
that  Richard  Ford  declares  that  "  Velasquez  was  emphatic- 
ally a  man,  and  the  painter  of  men,"  as  if  an  artist  of 
such  vigorous  characterization  could  have  had  no  vocation 
for  female  loveliness.  But  even  in  aesthetic  questions  how 
often  is  the  a  priori  necessity  of  a  fact  demonstrated  be- 
fore the  fact  itself  is  established  !  It  was  forgotten  that 
his  portraits  of  little  girls,  such  as  the  Infanta  Margaret 
and  her  associates  and  his  own  daughter,  are  unapproach- 
able, exciting  the  unqualified  admiration  of  painters, 
connoisseurs,  and  unprofessionals  alike.  And  such  sub- 
jects are,  to  say  the  least,  not  easier  than  full  grown 
women. 


THE  SIBYL  AND  THE  LADY  WITH  A  FAN 

Still  that  prejudice  is  apparently  justified  by  the  catalogue 
of  the  master's  extant  works  of  this  class.  The  Madrid 
Museum  has 'only  one  genuine  Spanish  female  portrait  by 
him,  and  although  there  are  numerous  royal  princesses,  they 
are  merely  replicas  of  a  very  limited  number  of  originals, 
which,  moreover,  belong  to  a  foreign  (Teutonic)  stock. 
Few  of  them  have  sufficient  personal  charms  or  mental 
endowments  to  awaken  the  observer's  interest. 

In  the  case  of  Philip's  first  Queen,  Isabella  of  Bourbon, 
most  noble-minded  of  all  contemporary  women,  the 
artist  seemed  to  have  lacked  full  facility  for  study,  as  she 
was  an  unwilling  subject.  The  second  and  very  insignifi- 
cant Mariana  of  Austria  became  yearly  more  repellent. 
To  the  fundamental  principle  of  suppressing  all  appearance 
of  amiability  was  here  added  a  monstrous  style  of  dress, 
which  exceeded  everything  hitherto  devised  in  deforming 
the  human  figure.  Even  Calderon  remarked  that  the 
etiquette  and  fashion  of  the  times  were  no  improvement  to 
beauty. 

However,  our  master's  love  of  truth  by  no  means  tended 
to  soften,  but  rather  to  accentuate,  those  elements  with  a 
precision  more  desirable  in  the  chronicler  than  in  the 
artist,  and  the  natural  consequence  is  that  his  ladies' 
gallery  is  scarcely  calculated  to  evoke  enthusiasm.  But 
was  it  his  business  to  improve  Nature  after  a  fashionable 
formula  in  the  manner  of  the  Mignards  and  Lelys  ?  In 
the  presence  of  such  models  and  of  such  a  rigid  etiquette 
must  not  all  Art  have  felt  itself  helpless  ?  Even  such  a 
depictor  of  beauty  as  Mengs  has  given  us  in  the  Electress 


THE  SIBYL  AND  THE  LADY  WITH  A  FAN         1 93 

Maria  Josepha  one  of  the  ugliest  female  heads  that  ever 
wore  a  crown.  With  better  subjects  would  not  Velasquez 
have  shown  himself  in  quite  a  different  light  ?  In  my 
opinion  this  question  may  be  answered  in  the  affirmative, 
if  the  facts  are  weighed  and  not  merely  counted — that  is, 
if  we  carefully  consider  the  few  extant  portraits  of  genuine 
Spanish  women  known  to  be  by  his  hand. 

There  are  three  only,  and  unfortunately  all  three  of  un- 
known persons. 

The  only  Spanish  lady  in  the  Madrid  Gallery,  and  the 
earliest  of  the  three  is  the  so-called  Sibyl.  It  is  first  heard 
of  in  the  St.  Ildefonso  inventory  of  1774,  where  it  is  de- 
scribed as  a  woman  in  profile  holding  a  tablet.  That  it 
represents  the  artist's  wife  is  possible,  but  not  yet  shown  to 
be  probable,  for  a  resemblance  can  scarcely  be  detected 
with  any  of  the  women  in  the  Vienna  family  picture. 

The  portrait  is  remarkable  as  the  only  instance  in  which 
the  painter  has  selected  a  profile  more  of  a  plastic  than 
pictorial  character.  The  lineaments  of  this  profile  are  less 
beautiful  than  interesting,  more  full  of  character  than 
pleasing,  but  in  any  case  purely  Spanish.  The  clear 
straight  open  brow,  such  as  recurs  in  all  the  following 
portraits,  combined  with  the  large  deep-set  eye  calmly 
gazing  into  the  distance  imparts  to  the  features  the  breath 
of  intelligence.  Its  serious  cast  is  enhanced  by  the 
shadows  over  the  forehead  and  eyes  caused  by  the  light 
coming  from  behind.  Is  it  the  glance  of  the  artist  or  the 
seer  ?  Unfortunately  the  tablet  which  .should  have  an- 
jswered  this  question  is  a  blank. 


194        THE  SIBYL  AND  THE  LADY  WITH  A  FAN 

The  grey  gown  and  yellow  mantle  are  of  almost  ideal 
simplicity.  Hence  she  would  seem  to  have  wished  her- 
self represented  in  some  poetic  character,  perhaps  after  the 
model  of  some  classic  work  known  to  her,  just  as 
Domenichino,  for  instance,  painted  his  fair  Maria  Sibylla 
as  Cecilia  or  the  Cumaean  Sibyl.  Only  one  can  scarcely 
recall  a  representation  of  the  Sibyl  in  the  severe  sculptur- 
esque style  of  this  Spanish  dame,  who  seems  in  the 
middle  of  her  twenties,  when,  according  to  Lope,  Spanish 
beauties  begin  to  fail. 

But  with  all  this  simplicity  of  treatment  special  attention 
has  been  paid  to  the  hair,  which  seems  to  betray  the  artist ; 
only  in  this  respect  what  Spanish  belle  is  not  an  artist  ? 
The  rich  black  frizzy  mass  is  rolled  up  above  the  forehead 
like  a  natural  diadem,  and  covers  part  of  the  cheek.  Be- 
hind, it  is  gathered  up  by  a  kind  of  netted  yellow  band 
from  which  a  wide  green  end  falls  down  the  back.  The 
finely-modelled  neck  is  encircled  by  a  string  of  pearls  and 
a  narrow  frill. 

The  picture  is  painted  on  a  yellowish-grey  ground,  with 
a  free  broad  touch  in  smooth,  thin  colours.  The  grey 
tone,  as  well  as  the  profile  which  painters  regard  as  in- 
sufficient for  the  likeness  in  portraits,  agrees  well  with  the 
character  of  reserve  impressed  upon  this  noble  figure, 
which  is  turned  from  the  light  and  from  the  observer. 

This  enigmatic  Sibyl  peering  into  space  is  followed  by  a 
figure,  which,  on  the  contrary,  gazes  with  almost  disturbing 
effect  on  the  spectator.  The  Lady  with  a  Fan  was  sold  at 
the  Lucien  Bonaparte  sale  (1861)  for  thirty-one  pounds, 


THE  SIBYL  AND  THE  LADY  WITH  A  FAN        1 95 

passing  afterwards  to  the  Aguado  Gallery,  where  a  very 
unsuccessful  steel  engraving  was  made.  At  the  Aguado 
sale  (March,  1843),  it  was  bought  for  1,275  francs  by  a 
Mr.  Moran,  apparently  acting  for  Lord  Hertford,  and  it 
now  adorns  the  gallery  of  Sir  Richard  Wallace;  size, 
36^x27  inches.  "There  is  no  other  painting  that  better 
represents  both  Spain  and  Velasquez,"  said  Thore,  who  saw 
it  at  the  Manchester  Exhibition. 

Here  are  the  eyes  of  a  Juno,  small,  delicately-shaped 
snub  nose,  warm,  glowing  carnations,  well-formed  cherry- 
red  mouth,  long  full  neck  with  string  of  dark  beads,  but  at 
too  obtuse  an  angle  with  the  bust ;  hair  brushed  back  from 
the  somewhat  hard  forehead,  and  then  brought  round  in  soft 
brown  locks  to  the  cheeks.  Thus  she  stands,  turned  to  her 
right,  looking  front,  and  gracefully  holding  the  hem  of  the 
black  lace  mantilla  high  up  on  her  bosom.  This  manto  was 
one  of  the  most  "  killing "  articles  of  the  Madrilena's 
wardrobe,  often  cursed  by  husbands  and  fathers,  once  even 
denounced  by  the  censure  of  a  royal  edict  (1639).  By  its 
means  they  could,  with  a  simple  movement  of  the  dainty 
little  ringers,  either  completely  veil  themselves  or  coquet- 
tishly  show  just  one  eye,  or  else,  as  here,  enframe  in  sombre 
black  the  loveliest  of  bosoms,  thanks  to  this  low  cut  olive- 
brown  dress. 

Besides  the  quite  dark  or  deadened  contrasts  of  the  attire, 
the  narrow  crimped  hem  of  the  chemisette  (as  Titian  recom- 
mends) serves  to  give  a  still  warmer  tone  to  the  southern 
complexion,  the  freshness  of  which  is  secured  by  an  un- 
usually rich  impasto. 


196       THE  SIBYL  AND  THE  LADY  WITH  A  FAN 

The  hands  are  concealed  in  loose  light  gray  leather 
gloves,  with  lace  cuffs ;  but  besides  the  beaded  necklace  no 
jewels.  The  right  hand  holds  the  fully  unfurled  fan,  which 
is  turned  to  the  observer  like  an  eloquent  hieroglyphic. 
On  the  left  arm  hangs  the  many-coiled  rosary  with  its 
bluish  bow.  Thus  we  have  here  the  three  dumb  instru- 
ments, of  which  every  Spanish  belle  is  a  perfect  connoisseur, 
the  mantilla  and  fan  for  action,  the  rosary  to  mask  the 
attack,  for  she  is  now  in  her  "  war  paint."  The  glance  of 
the  brown  eyes  is  proud,  almost  hard,  a  strategic  glance, 
which  under  outward  coldness  conceals  impatience  and 
passion.  It  conveys  a  question,  if  not  an  ultimatum. 
Here  is  the  moment  for  a  bold  word ;  hesitate  an  instant, 
and  she  will  never  forgive  you. 

Who  is  she  and  whence  comes  she  ?  Probably  from 
Mass  in  the  Vitoria,  the  "  ladies'  parish,"  as  Tirso  calls  it, 
from  which  it  is  but  a  step  to  the  Calle  Mayor,  "  where 
love  is  bartered  by  measure  and  weight." 

Or  she  might  suit  the  popular  avenue  of  the  Prado; 
only  the  painter  has  indicated  nothing,  merely  giving  her  a 
greenish-grey  background.  Is  it  one  of  those  Circe's,  for 
whom  thejeunesse  dor'ee  of  those  days  "  went  to  the  dogs  "  ? 
— or  a  Toledan  flirt  of  the  comedies,  one  of  those  who  on 
receiving  the  holy  water *  flashed  back  a  glance  that  turned 
the  heads  of  cavaliers  on  the  eve  of  their  wedding  ?  A 
maze  of  coldness  and  fire,  of  bigotry  and  worldliness,  of 
pride  and  coquetry,  or  worse  ? 

1  It  was  the  fashion  for  gallants  to  stand  at  the  font  and  hand  the  holy 
water  on  the  tips  of  their  fingers  to  the  senoras  passing  in  and  out. 


THE  SIBYL  AND  THE  LADY  WITH  A  FAN        197 

Of  our  unknown  there  is  another  portrait  which  seems 
more  representative  and  less  motived  than  this.  Since  the 
middle  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  it  has  been  in  the  Duke 
of  Devonshire's  Chiswick  House  collection  (size  28x18^ 
inches).  The  chief  difference  lies  in  the  dress,  which  is  of 
richer,  more  costly  materials,  especially  lace  of  brighter 
colour,  yet  more  quiet  and  aristocratic.  The  plain  black 
mantilla  has  been  exchanged  for  one  of  rich  lace,  whose 
hem  cut  in  floral  pattern  encroaches  more  on  the  face. 
She  wears  a  pearl  necklace  and  a  lemon-coloured  silk  gown, 
with  black  lace  volants  on  underskirt  and  sleeves.  On  the 
other  hand  the  bosom  is  covered  by  a  white  lace  collar,  and 
instead  of  the  elegant  fan  the  right  hand  holds  a  meaning- 
less handkerchief.  But  the  large  gloves  have  been  forgot- 
ten, and  yet  the  hands  are  by  no  means  "  five-leaved  lilies." 
Although  merely  sketched,  they  are  strong,  which  for  a 
Spanish  lady  of  quality  means  much. 

Possibly  this  richly-arrayed  figure  served  as  an  experi- 
ment, the  results  of  which  were  turned  to  account  for  the 
other  portrait.  The  canvas  seems  cut  very  close. 

Lastly,  an  authentic  portrait  of  a  very  elegant  lady  is 
figured  in  the  third  picture,  which  passed  from  the  Dudley 
Gallery  to  the  Berlin  Museum.  Its  pedigree  goes  no  farther 
back  than  the  collection  of  Sebastian  Martinez  in  Cadiz, 
although  not  mentioned  by  A.  Ponz  in  his  description  of 
that  place.  In  the  year  1867  it  was  purchased  by  Lord 
Ward  of  Dudley  from  the  Salamanca  Gallery  for  ninety- 
eight  thousand  francs. 

The  figure  stands  out  very  plastically  from  the  light  grey 


198         THE  SIBYL  AND  THE  LADY  WITH  A  FAN 

ground,  almost  in  the  form  of  two  super-imposed  cones, 
with  the  conventional  pose  and  gestures  of  the  portraits  of 
the  royal  princesses.  The  shape  of  the  farthingale  and  the 
hair  are  also  in  the  same  fashion,  which  lasted  from  the 
third  to  the  fifth  decade  of  the  Seventeenth  Century.  She 
has  the  easy  attitude  of  refined  culture,  although  the  proud 
bearing,  the  firm  grasp  of  the  arm  of  the  red  chair,  and  the 
expression  seem  to  betray  more  character  than  is  seen  in 
the  royal  ladies. 


MRS.  SIDDONS 

(<S/r  Thomas  Lawrence) 

LORD  RONALD  SUTHERLAND  GOWER 

TTOLLOWING  closely  upon  the  masters  of  the 
•*•  Eighteenth  Century — Reynolds,  Gainsborough  and 
Romney — Lawrence  at  once  stepped  into  the  position  of 
the  foremost  portrait-painter  in  England,  a  position  he 
maintained  until  the  day  of  his  death.  Like  the  greatest 
artists  that  the  world  has  ever  seen,  he  expressed  the  spirit 
of  his  age  in  his  portraits;  and  if  that  age  was  somewhat 
lacking  in  picturesqueness,  Lawrence's  talent  receives  an 
added  lustre  from  the  fact  that  he  has  given  us  the  loveliest 
women  and  the  most  important  men  of  his  time,  with  a 
fidelity,  a  consummate  art,  and  an  acute  perception  of  char- 
acter that  the  mere  vagaries  of  fashion  can  neither  conceal 
nor  trammel. 

Thomas  Lawrence  was  a  most  precocious  child,  and  we 
hear  that  when  only  five  years  of  age  he  would  stand  on 
the  table  and  recite  Milton  and  the  odes  of  Collins  to  an 
admiring  crowd ;  his  drawings  also  at  that  early  age  showed 
real  talent,  his  portraits  being  considered  excellent.  Even 
when  a  child,  Lawrence  drew  eyes  most  beautifully.  "  In 
the  painting  of  the  human  eye,"  writes  Cunningham, 
"  Lawrence  became  afterwards  unrivalled,"  and  in  later 
years  Fuseli,  the  eccentric  Swiss  Academician,  compared 


20O  MRS.  SIDDONS 

Lawrence's  painting  of  eyes  to  that  of  Titian.  Among 
others  of  the  admirers  of  the  infant  prodigy  was  the  great 
Siddons,  who,  in  her  solemn  way,  declared  that  young 
Lawrence's  voice  was  harmonious  and  his  action  just. 

It  was  at  Bath  that  Lawrence  commenced  his  life-work. 
At  first  his  sketches  and  portraits,  had  been  priced  at  a 
guinea,  but  he  now  raised  them  to  a  guinea  and  a  half. 
The  great  Siddons  sat  to  him  in  the  role  of  Aspasia  in  the 
Grecian  Daughter,  and  the  portrait  was  considered  so  suc- 
cessful that  it  was  engraved,  and  proved  highly  remunera- 
tive. Before  Lawrence  was  twelve  years  of  age  he  became 
the  rage  of  all  the  rank  and  fashion  of  the  town. 

A  great  misfortune  for  Lawrence  was  undoubtedly  the 
fashion  of  the  dress  of  the  day.  The  French  Revolution 
which  was  then  causing  the  monarchs  of  Europe  to  tremble 
upon  their  thrones,  had,  among  vaster  changes,  obliterated 
the  picturesqueness  of  both  male  and  female  sitters  of  the 
upper  classes.  The  first  effect  was  the  appearance  of  the 
atrocious  "  high  hat "  in  the  place  of  the  shapely  tricorne ; 
hair-powder  went  out  and  pomatum  came  in ;  men  wore 
pyramidally  shaped  coats  and  collars  with  numerous  waist- 
coats overlapping  each  other,  Hessian  boots,  and  great- 
coats with  frogs  and  lapels  lined  with  fur.  Ladies  appeared 
in  voluminous  turbans  in  which  were  poised  Birds  of  Para- 
dise, and  had  their  waists  immediately  below  their  bare  arms, 
up  which  gloves  were  loosely  drawn  till  they  reached  the 
shoulder,  from  which  stood  puffed-out  sleeves,  graphically 
described  as  shoulders  of  mutton.  Their  hair  was  arranged  in 
glossy  curls  so  as  to  completely  hide  the  eyes  and  forehead. 


MRS.    SIDDONS 


MRS.  SIDDONS  2OI 

Such  monstrosities  of  fashion  had  superseded,  in  the  early 
years  of  the  century,  the  superbly  satin-coated  and  be- 
ruffled  dandies,  and  the  prodigiously  tall  dressed-out  hair  of 
the  dames  of  the  latter  part  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  and 
all  the  picturesque  pomp  and  splendour  of  the  "old 
regime."  The  Brighton  Pavilion  and  the  u  first  Gentleman 
in  Europe  "  had  stepped  into  the  place  of  Versailles  and 
Marie  Antoinette. 

For  the  next  thirty  years  Lawrence  worked  assiduously 
at  painting  these  preposterously  accoutred  men  and  women, 
and  seems  to  have  revelled  in  the  very  ugliness  of  the 
fashion.  Although  simple  in  his  own  attire  and  always 
wearing  a  black  coat,  there  is  hardly  a  picture  by  him  in 
which  his  sitters  were  not,  even  the  men,  in  red  or  green, 
or  blue  or  purple.  Lawrence,  of  course,  could  not  be  ex- 
pected to  alter  the  fashion  of  the  dress  of  his  day,  but  he 
certainly  did  not  seem  to  see  its  ludicrousness.  He  painted 
every  one  who  was  celebrated  and  beautiful,  in  fact,  any  one 
who  paid  to  be  painted,  and  the  consequence  of  this  plethora 
of  portrait-painting  was  that  he  lost  much  individuality, 
getting  into  a  groove,  and  giving  little  character  to  his  por- 
traits ;  and  even  Kemble  as  Hamlet,  as  Rolla,  as  Cato,  or  as 
Coriolanus,  is  always  Lawrence  plus  Kemble. 

His  protrait  of  Mrs.  Siddons  herself,  whom  he  almost 
idolized,  lacks  the  grandeur  that  Gainsborough,  and  the  sub- 
limity that  Reynolds  gave  to  her  majestic  face ;  and  the 
heavy-browed  Thurlow  has  little  of  the  almost  terrific 
majesty  of  judicial  wisdom  that  Romney  transferred  to  his 
canvas.  Lawrence  lacked  genius ;  he  was  determined  to 


202  MRS.   SIDDONS 

please  in  his  portraiture,  and  no  painter  was  more  successful 
in  his  undertaking.  His  was  the  art  which  was  certain  to 
succeed  among  princes  and  fine  ladies,  high  dignitaries  and 
grand  seigneurs ;  but  contrast,  for  instance,  Reynolds's  por- 
trait of  Heathfield  in  the  National  Gallery,  with  that  of 
Wellington  by  Lawrence  at  Windsor  Castle :  how  feeble 
the  latter  appears !  And  yet  surely  the  hero  of  Waterloo 
was  a  better  subject  to  paint  than  he  of  Gibraltar. 

Lawrence's  method  of  work  was  as  follows  :  — He  al- 
ways painted  standing;  on  one  occasion  he  worked  all 
through  the  day,  through  that  night,  the  next  day,  and  all 
through  the  night  following.  At  the  first  sitting  he  care- 
fully drew  in  the  outline  of  his  sitter's  face  in  pencil  on  the 
canvas.  At  the  second  he  commenced  to  colour,  but  he 
always  carefully  painted  in  the  head  before  sketching  more 
than  the  shoulders  of  the  figure — as  any  art-student  may 
see  in  his  unfinished  portrait  of  Wilberforce  in  the  Na- 
tional Portrait  Gallery,  or  the  brilliant  sketch  of  a  woman's 
head  in  the  National  Gallery.  Often  he  kept  his  sitters  for 
three  hours  at  a  stretch,  and  sometimes  required  as  many  as 
eight  or  nine  sittings.  All  this  proved  how  hard  and  how 
conscientiously  he  worked.  Some  of  his  more  rapid  por- 
traits are  better  than  his  more  finished  and  coloured  ones. 

Haydon,  the  ambitious  painter  of  historical  subjects, 
whose  writing  is  so  superior  to  his  painting,  and  whose  end 
was  so  tragic,  cordially  disliked  Lawrence  and  all  his  works. 
He  has  written  of  him  as  follows :  "  Lawrence  was  suited 
to  the  age  and  the  age  to  Lawrence.  He  flattered  its  van- 
ities, pampered  its  weaknesses^  and  met  its  meretricious 


MRS.   SIDDONS 

taste.  His  men  were  all  gentlemen  with  an  air  of  fashion 
and  the  dandyism  of  high  life — his  women  were  delicate  but 
not  modest,  beautiful  but  not  natural,  they  appear  to  look 
that  they  may  be  looked  at,  and  to  languish  for  the  sake  of 
sympathy."  The  portrait-painter  Opie  said  of  his  great 
rival,  that  Lawrence  u  made  coxcombs  of  his  sitters,  and 
his  sitters  made  a  coxcomb  of  Lawrence."  Both  of  these 
criticisms  are  unfair  to  Sir  Thomas,  but  they  are,  in  a  cer- 
tain measure,  true.  Richard  Redgrave  in  his  work  A  Cen- 
tury of  Painters,  is  more  just  when  he  writes  that  cc  many 
of  Lawrence's  faults  arose  from  his  courteous  weakness  to 
his  sitters;  they  lived  and  moved  in  the  atmosphere  of 
fashionable  life,  then  far  more  exclusive  than  at  present, 
and  he  submitted  to  their  dictation ;  hence  it  was  said  that 
'  his  women  look  the  slaves  of  fashion,  glittering  with  pearls 
and  ornaments.'  Something  also  must  be  attributed  to  his 
over-taxed  powers,  which  obliged  him  to  give  over  much  of 
the  making-up  of  his  pictures  to  his  assistants  :  backgrounds 
and  even  hands  were  entrusted  to  them ;  and  the  numerous 
repetitions  of  public  portraits  which  were  called  for,  were 
necessarily  the  almost  entire  work  of  the  Simpsons,  father 
and  son,  Pegler  and  others,  who  were  in  Lawrence's  con- 
stant employment." 

Wilkie  has  left  an  interesting  account  of  the  manner  in 
which  Sir  Thomas  worked  : — "  He  wished  to  seize  the  ex- 
pression rather  than  to  copy  the  features.  His  attainment 
of  likeness  was  most  laborious.  One  distinguished  person, 
who  favoured  him  with  forty  sittings  for  his  head  alone,  de- 
clared he  was  the  slowest  painter  he  ever  sat  to,  and  he  had 


204  MRS.  SIDDONS 

sat  to  many.  He  would  draw  the  portrait  in  chalk  the  size 
of  life,  on  paper ;  this  occupied  but  one  sitting,  but  that 
sitting  lasted  nearly  one  whole  day.  He  next  transferred 
this  outline  from  the  paper  to  the  canvas :  his  picture  and 
his  sitter  were  placed  at  a  distance  from  the  point  of  view 
where,  to  see  both  at  a  time,  he  had  to  traverse  all  across 
the  room  before  the  conception  which  the  view  of  his  sitter 
suggested  could  be  proceeded  with.  In  this  incessant 
transit  his  feet  had  worn  a  path  through  the  carpet  to  the 
floor,  exercising  freedom  both  of  body  and  mind ;  each 
traverse  allowing  time  for  invention,  while  it  required  an 
effort  of  memory  between  the  touch  on  the  canvas  and  the 
observation  from  which  it  grew." 

Both  as  a  man  and  as  an  artist  Lawrence  was  impression- 
able, and  in  his  work  was  entirely  influenced  by  the  spirit 
of  his  period,  a  period  of  affectation  that  frequently  bor- 
dered upon  vulgarity.  If  Lawrence's  art  in  portraiture  had 
been  genius  instead  of  talent  of  the  highest  order,  he  would 
have  created  a  public  taste  instead  of  slavishly  following 
that  set  by  the  Court  and  Society  of  his  day.  As  it  was, 
his  work  was  the  ultimate  expression  of  the  "  curtain  and 
column  "  school  of  portraiture,  and  his  success  set  a  fashion 
that  was  followed  for  years  afterwards  by  innumerable  por- 
trait-painters. These,  in  imitating  the  style,  missed  the 
spirit  and  perception  by  which  Lawrence,  trammelled  as  he 
was  by  the  absurdities  of  the  dress  and  conventionality  of 
attitude  and  surroundings,  was  enabled  to  place  upon  his 
canvases  some  suggestions  of  the  actual  identity  of  his  sit- 
ters. And  it  was  not  until  the  advent  of  George  Frederick 


MRS.   SIDDONS  205 

Watts  and  the  late  Sir  John  Everett  Millais  that  the  effects 
of  the  imitation  of  the  obvious  points  of  Lawrence's  style 
finally  disappeared  from  English  portraiture. 

Lawrence's  chief  defect  was  that  he  turned  his  art  too 
much  into  a  trade ;  he  would  have  attained  a  far  higher 
position  had  he  contented  himself  with  painting  half  the 
people  he  did,  and  his  name  would  have  stood  on  a  higher 
pinnacle  in  the  Temple  of  Fame.  During  the  last  twenty 
years  of  his  life  he  painted  but  little  more  as  a  rule,  than 
the  face  of  his  sitter,  the  rest  of  the  picture  being  completed 
by  his  pupils,  or  rather  by  his  assistants.  This  practice 
has,  of  course,  lessened  the  value  of  his  portraits.  Indi- 
vidually I  prefer,  in  most  cases,  such  an  unfinished  work  as 
his  double  portrait  oil-sketch  of  Lady  Glengall,  or  even  one 
of  his  beautiful  pencil  drawings,  such  as  that  of  the  Morn- 
ington  sisters,  to  many  of  his  full-length  life-size  portraits ; 
such  sketches  are  worth  all  the  portraits  of  George  IV.  put 
together.  Another  of  Lawrence's  defects  was  his  ruling 
passion  to  be  the  leading  portrait-painter  of  his  day  ;  and  in 
order  to  maintain  that  place  he  sacrificed  care,  finish,  and 
quality,  to  quantity.  It  is  owing  to  these  defects  that  we 
find  so  many  unsatisfactory  portraits  from  his  too  prolific 
brush. 

These  are  grave  failings ;  but  on  the  other  side  his  great 
merits  are  incontestable,  and  weigh  the  scale  in  his  favour. 
Where,  except  among  the  very  greatest  of  those  whose 
fame  chiefly  rests  on  their  excellence  in  the  art  of  portrait- 
painting — such  giants  as  Titian,  Rubens,  Rembrandt, 
Velasquez  and  Van  Dyck,  Reynolds  and  Gainsborough — 


206  MRS.  SIDDONS 

can  finer  work  be  shown  than  in  such  astonishing  likenesses 
as  those  of  Lawrence  when  at  his  best;  and  the  master 
must  be  judged  by  his  master-works.  His  style,  when  once 
he  had  adopted  it,  had  the  great  merit  of  being  a  style  of  its 
own,  of  much  refinement  and  excellence  in  drawing ; 
although  his  work  was  perhaps  too  smooth  in  technique 
and  somewhat  affected  in  feeling.  His  paintings  have 
lasted,  whereas  those  of  many  of  his  contemporaries  are 
mere  wrecks  and  shadows  of  their  former  selves ;  for  he 
attempted  no  experiments  in  glazings  and  pigments  as  was 
Sir  Joshua's  wont,  and  his  pictures  are,  as  a  rule,  as  fresh 
as  when  they  were  painted  a  century  ago. 

I  believe  it  only  fair  to  place  him  immediately  beneath 
our  three  greatest  portrait-painters, — that  immortal  trio, 
Reynolds,  Gainsborough  and  Romney :  at  a  time  when 
Hoppner,  Opie,  and  Raeburn  were  all  working,  this  is  high 
praise.  My  readers  will  hardly,  I  think,  gainsay  this  esti- 
mate of  the  talents  of  the  painter  who  has  left  us  such 
portraits  as  those  of  Pius  VII.,  Cardinal  Consalvi,  Curran, 
Scott,  Eldon  and  Wilberforce — unfinished  though  the  last 
work  may  be — and  such  presentments  of  woman's  grace, 
beauty  and  refinement  as  in  a  score  of  his  portraits  of  Eng- 
land's maids  and  matrons — some  with  children  whose  love- 
liness almost  outdoes  that  of  their  mothers. 

Bearing  these  and  many  others  of  his  works  in  mind,  we 
may  well  agree  with  Sir  Walter  Scott  who,  in  a  letter  to 
Wilkie  written  immediately  after  hearing  of  Sir  Thomas 
Lawrence's  death,  said :  u  A  star  has  fallen,  a  great  artist 


MRS.  SIDDONS  207 

The  following  was  the  impression  made  upon  Fanny 
Kemble  by  Lawrence  as  a  painter : — 

Of  Lawrence's  merit  as  a  painter  an  unduly  favourable 
estimate  was  taken  during  his  life,  and  since  his  death  his 
reputation  has  suffered  an  undue  depreciation.  Much  that 
he  did  partook  of  the  false  and  bad  style  which,  from  the 
deeper  source  of  degraded  morality,  spread  a  taint  over  all 
matters  of  art  and  taste,  under  the  vicious  influence  of  the 
"first  Gentleman  of  Europe,"  whose  own  artistic  prefer- 
ences bore  witness,  quite  as  much  as  the  more  serious 
events  of  his  life,  how  little  he  deserved  the  name.  Hide- 
ous Chinese  pagoda  pavilions,  with  grotesque  and  monstrous 
decorations,  barbarous  alike  in  form  and  colour ;  in  mean 
and  ugly  low-roomed  royal  palaces,  without  either  magnifi- 
cence or  simplicity ;  military  costumes,  in  which  gold  and 
silver  lace  were  plastered  together  on  the  same  uniform, 
testified  to  the  perverted  perception  of  beauty  and  fitness 
which  presided  in  the  court  of  George  the  Fourth.  Law- 
rence's own  portrait  of  him,  with  his  corpulent  body  girthed 
in  its  stays  and  creaseless  coat,  and  its  heavy  falling  cheeks 
supported  by  his  stiff  stock,  with  his  dancing-master's  leg 
and  his  frizzled  barber's  block-head,  comes  as  near  a  cari- 
cature as  a  flattered  likeness  of  the  original  (which  was  a 
caricature)  dares  to  do.  To  have  had  to  paint  that  was 
enough  to  have  vulgarized  any  pencil.  The  defect  of  many 
of  Lawrence's  female  portraits  was  a  sort  of  artificial,  senti- 
mental elegantism.  Pictures  of  the  fine  ladies  of  that  day 
they  undoubtedly  were,  pictures  of  great  ladies,  never;  and, 
in  looking  at  them,  one  sighed  for  the  exquisite  simple 


208  MRS.  SIDDONS 

grace    and    unaffected    dignity   of  Reynolds's  and    Gains- 
borough's noble  and  gentle  women. 

The  lovely  head  of  Lady  Nugent,  the  fine  portrait  of 
Mrs.  Wolff,  the  splendid  one  of  Lady  Hatherton,  and  the 
noble  picture  of  my  grandmother  (Mrs.  Siddons)  are  among 
the  best  productions  of  Lawrence's  pencil ;  and  several  of 
his  men's  portraits  are  in  a  robust  and  simple  style  of  art 
worthy  of  the  highest  admiration. 


CHARACTER  PORTRAITS 

(Frans  Hals) 

GERALD  S.  DA  VIES 

I  HAVE  already  expressed  the  opinion,  which  I  believe, 
must  inevitably  result  to  any  one  who  has  viewed  the 
life  of  Frans  Hals  as  a  consistent  whole,  and  realized  the 
one  aim  of  his  chief  artistic  purpose,  which  presently  ab- 
sorbed all  others,  that  we  must  regard  him  even  in  his 
so-called  genre  pictures  always  as  a  portrait-painter,  always 
as  one  whose  prevailing  thought  was  the  vivid  presentment 
of  a  face  at  a  given  moment  under  a  transient  expression. 
And  in  this  respect,  though  his  brilliant  realizations  of  com- 
monplace and  sometimes  vulgar  facial  expression  did  un- 
doubtedly give  the  start  to  those  many  Dutch  painters  who 
lived  after  him,  and  are  sometimes  called  by  the  clumsy  title 
"  the  genre  painters,"  yet  he  differs  entirely  from  them  in 
this,  that  he  is  always  first  and  foremost  portrait-painter, 
never  a  subject  painter  who  merely  uses  a  model.  These 
u  genre  pictures  "  (I  wish  I  could  avoid  the  title),  of  jesters, 
gipsies,  mountebanks,  topers,  go  pan  passu  all  along  his 
career  with  his  graver  portraits.  They  were  necessary  to 
him  because  no  man  pays  for  his  portrait  to  be  painted 
while  he  grins  at  a  half-empty  pot,  or  leers  up  at  a  half- 
open  casement.  If  Hals  were  to  paint  these  subjects, 
which  had  the  greatest  attraction  for  him  because  they  gave 
him  his  chances  of  rendering  the  human  face  in  action,  he 


210  CHARACTER  PORTRAITS 

must  pay  them  or  reward  them  in  some  shape,  or  attract 
them  by  his  talk  and  his  jokes  in  studio  or  pothouse  to  act 
as  his  models.  This  is  the  real  distinction  between  the 
one  class  of  portrait  and  the  other.  His  aim,  however,  was 
the  same  in  both, — absolute  realization  of  a  likeness. 

It  is  in  this  class  of  so-called  genre  pictures,  which 
tempted  imitators  great  and  small,  that  the  greatest  wrong 
has  been  done  to  Hals,  and  that  the  greatest  number  of 
works  under  false  attributions  hang  in  many  galleries.  One 
or  two  recognized  copies,  indeed,  are  of  value  where  the 
originals  are  inaccessible  or  lost.  But  the  tendency  to  label 
all  persons  who  gesticulate  over  pewter  pots,  or  who  play 
musical  instruments  with  the  suitable  contortions,  though  it 
is  natural  on  the  part  of  the  owners  of  pictures  and  of  the 
directors  of  museums,  has  greatly  injured  the  reputation  of 
Hals.  Nor  can  it  be  said  that  picture-dealers  as  a  body 
have  put  any  great  strain  upon  themselves  in  the  endeavour 
to  oppose  this  tendency. 

That  Hals  was,  in  his  later  days,  an  unequal  painter,  is 
a  position  which  it  is  difficult  to  contest  with  entire  suc- 
cess. But  that  position  has  been  made  to  seem  far  stronger 
than  it  is  by  the  large  quantity  of  inferior  works  which 
have  been  accepted  as  his  merely  because  their  subjects  are 
such  as  he  painted  and  the  style  a  colourable  imitation  of 
his.  It  is  often  quite  easy  to  say  that  these  works  are  none 
of  his.  It  is  generally  very  difficult  or  quite  impossible  to 
say  from  whom  else  they  proceed.  But  it  may  be  admitted 
that  Hals  would  indeed  be  an  unequal  painter,  if  he  had 
painted  the  masterpieces  which  really  do  belong  to  him 


THE  JESTER 


' 


CHARACTER  PORTRAITS  211 

and   the  fatuities  which  are  sometimes  labelled  with   his 
name. 

In  the  Rijks  Museum  at  Amsterdam  hangs  an  admirable 
old  copy,  said  to  be  by  Dirk  Hals,  of  an  original  in  the 
possession  of  Baron  Gustav  Rothschild.  This  is  the 
Jester,  Fool,  Mandolin  Player,  Lute  Player, — he  appears 
under  different  names.  The  copy  has  every  appearance  of 
being  faithful,  the  only  visible  shortcoming  being  in  the 
left  hand,  which  is  heavy  and  overloaded  and  has  gone 
wrong.  It  is  unsafe  to  criticise  colour  from  a  copy,  no 
matter  how  excellent, — and  it  is  best  therefore  to  forbear. 
But  the  rendering  of  facial  expression  by  the  copyist  may 
here  be  fully  trusted ;  and,  moreover,  may  be  understood 
quite  fully  by  an  appeal  to  the  reproduction.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  mention  that  an  old  tradition  has  it  that  this  is  a 
portrait  of  the  artist's  pupil,  Adriaen  Brouwer.  But,  who- 
ever be  the  original,  it  is  quite  impossible  to  stand  before 
the  picture  without  feeling  assured  that  it  is  a  portrait  to 
the  life  of  some  one.  Perhaps  in  the  whole  range  of  art 
there  is  nothing  more  convincingly  life-like.  It  is  nothing 
to  the  point  for  us  to  inquire,  was  this  thing  worth  the 
doing  ?  was  there  no  finer  subject  on  which  to  expend  this 
astounding  force  ?  It  is  nothing  to  the  point  to  say  that 
the  motive  is  trivial,  and  that  the  fellow  and  his  chansons 
were  probably  vulgar.  That  is  apt  to  be  the  way  of  the 
jester  and  of  the  strolling  musician,  no  doubt,  whether  he 
is  met  with  at  Haarlem  or  at  Henley.  We  need  not  be  at 
pains  to  claim  that  the  Fool  of  Frans  Hals,  or  the  Buffoon 
of  Velasquez,  or  the  Pierrots  of  Watteau  are  exalted  sub- 


212  CHARACTER  PORTRAITS 

jects.  We  have  to  be  content  with  the  art  that  has  raised 
even  these  into  the  region  of  classics.  It  is  only  necessary 
to  think  what  these  subjects  may  and  have  become  in  the 
hands  of  the  trivial,  to  make  one  look  at  this  impudent, 
rascally  Jester  of  Frans  Hals  with  something  of  the  respect, 
though  of  a  different  calibre,  that  we  feel  for  a  Touchstone 
or  a  Launcelot  Gobbo.  Each  is  a  masterpiece  of  his  kind. 
And  each  becomes  a  living  being  unforgettable  when  once 
you  have  made  his  acquaintance.  There  lies  the  test  of 
the  artist's  power  as  a  creator. 

No  less  intimate  and  unerring  is  his  seizure  of  the  ex- 
pression, not  quite  so  momentary  and  far  more  pleasing,  in 
his  magically  brilliant  sketch  of  a  gipsy,  La  Bob'emienne^  in 
the  Louvre — a  model  possibly  caught  at  some  strolling 
show  at  Haarlem.  I  call  it  a  sketch  advisedly.  The  artist 
who  examines  it  closely— and  it  is  for  artists,  above  all 
others,  a  morsel  which  they  cannot  afford  to  pass  by — will 
assert  with  me  that  the  fact  is  written  on  every  inch.  It  is 
thinly  and  lightly,  but  firmly  painted,  with  a  very  full  and 
very  liquid  brush — almost  like  a  very  fluid  but  solid  water- 
colour,  if  such  a  thing  could  be — each  tone  brought  up  to 
the  other  and  overlapping ;  but  set  there  once,  and  once 
for  all,  with  absolute  knowledge  and  certainty,  no  after- 
thoughts, no  changes,  no  happy  accidents.  It  is  all  seen 
unerringly,  touched  unerringly.  So  she  was,  for  that  hour 
or  two,  so  she  was  painted  for  that  hour  or  two,  and  so  she 
was  left.  And  it  has  all  that  delicious  freshness  and  charm 
which  belong  to  a  first  sketch  before  nature  of  a  great 
artist,  and  belong  to  that  alone.  But  the  sketches  of  most 


CHARACTER  PORTRAITS  213 

men,  even  the  greatest,  for  all  their  freshness  and  delicious- 
ness,  are  tentative,  experimental,  demanding  concession 
and  even  forgiveness  on  the  part  of  the  sympathizer  as 
compared  with  this  sketch  by  Hals.  There  is  nothing,  in 
the  way  of  technique,  or  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
artist,  to  forgive  or  to  have  to  understand.  It  is  at  once 
a  fresh,  first-thought  sketch,  and  a  complete  and  finished 
picture, — if  indeed  the  true  definition  of  finish  in  a  picture 
is  the  moment  beyond  which  every  added  touch  is  a  loss. 

Whether  this  picture  appeals  to  all  picture-lovers  in  the 
same  degree  as  it  will  appeal  to  every  artist  who  examines 
it,  is  another  question.  I  have  known  some  to  whom  it 
certainly  does  not  appeal.  On  this  point  I  would  merely 
state  it  as  a  matter  of  my  own  experience,  that  it  is  with 
this  picture,  as  with  so  many  of  Hals's ;  the  longer  you  sit 
before  it,  the  more  do  you  see  in  it,  the  more  do  you  become 
fascinated  by  it.  A  superficial  view  of  any  of  Hals's 
pictures  reveals  to  you,  I  have  always  found,  only  the  parts 
that  you  do  not  like, — the  parts  which  occasionally  come 
near  to  repelling  you.  No  man  that  I  know  of  needs  so 
much  time.  Given  that  time,  no  man  that  I  know  of  so 
completely  repays  it.  He  is  not  a  man  who,  on  the  sur- 
face, is  exactly  loveable,  and  yet  I  have  rarely  gone  away 
from  one  of  his  subjects,  which  I  may  have  at  first  disliked, 
without  a  strong  feeling  of  sympathy  for  this  much  mis- 
understood man. 

In  this  portrait  of  the  poor  gipsy  girl,  handsome,  happy- 
go-lucky,  good-natured  hussy  that  she  is,  I  find  once  more 
in  Hals  a  sympathy  for  his  subject  which  goes  far  beyond 


214  CHARACTER  PORTRAITS 

the  mere  painter's  desire,  of  which  he  is  as  often  accused, 
to  paint  on  to  a  canvas  in  imitation  of  a  human  face,  and  to 
show  how  brilliantly  he  can  do  it.  She  is  slatternly,  care- 
less and  free,  and  Hals  gives  you  all  that.  But  he  tells  you 
a  little  more  about  the  merry-looking  creature  than  that, 
and  what  he  tells  you,  makes  you  sympathize.  She  is 
greatly  amused — thinks,  indeed,  that  it  is  the  best  joke  that 
has  happened  to  her  for  a  long  time — that  she  should  have 
her  portrait  painted.  The  smile  on  her  face  is  quite  irre- 
pressible— at  any  moment  it  will  burst  into  a  laugh,  and  it 
is  so  full  of  naturalness  that  you  know  you  will  have 
to  laugh  with  her  whenever  she  does.  It  is  more 
catching  than,  though  of  course  not  so  subtle  as,  the  un- 
fathomable smile  with  which  Lisa  la  Gioconda  looks  out  at 
you  from  the  canvas  of  Lionardo.  The  one,  indeed,  is  the 
smile  of  sheer  good  temper  and  animal  spirits,  and  it  calls 
out  in  you  something  of  the  same  sort  of  feeling ;  the 
other  is  the  expression  of  some  set  of  thoughts  deep  within, 
which  makes  you,  too,  look  inwards  and  smile,  you  don't 
know  why :  and  there  is  magic  in  either ;  and  yet  how 
different  are  the  means  which  produced  the  one,  and  the 
means  which  produced  the  other  :  as  different,  indeed,  as  the 
men  themselves,  as  Hals  and  Lionardo ;  as  different  as  La 
Bohemienne  herself  and  Lisa  la  Gioconda. 

After  1641,  Hals  more  and  more  abandoned  the  use  of 
positive  colour,  and  as  he  did  so  more  and  more  fell  into  the 
use  of  greyish,  dusky,  and  finally  black  shadows.  The 
well-known  Hille  Bobbe  is  at  once  an  example  of  the  as- 
tonishing dexterity  which  he  had  attained — and  not  lost  at 


HILLE   BOBBE 


CHARACTER  PORTRAITS  215 

the  age  of  seventy — of  setting  down  a  passing  expression, 
and  also  an  example  of  the  extreme  to  which  he  had  al- 
lowed himself  to  go  in  the  use  of  black  upon  flesh  colour. 

Hille  Bobbe  was  a  fish-wife  of  Haarlem,  and  it  would  seem 
— I  confess  that  my  historical  researches  into  her  personality 
are  extremely  superficial — a  noted  character  in  her  day. 
Something  in  the  look  of  the  old  hag  one  day  seems  to  have 
tickled  Frans  Hals,  and  he  sets  her  down  with  ruthless 
reality  there  and  then  in  a  sketch  so  rapid  and  so  summary 
that  one  may,  by  the  sabre-like  black  slashes  on  the  back- 
ground at  the  side  of  her  head,  tell  the  very  size  of  the 
brushes  that  he  used  (he  seems  to  have  used  tools  of  a 
medium  size,  not  the  largest,  as  we  might  have  expected). 
Colours  are  scarce  and  precious  to  poor  Frans  at  that  date ; 
he  has  few  at  hand.  Black  and  white  and  yellow  ochre  and 
blue  and  red,  nothing  more,  and  one  wishes  he  had  left  out 
all  but  the  black  and  white,  and  given  it  us  without  any 
colour  but  what  we  could  have  suggested  to  ourselves. 
Then  these  absolutely  black  shadows  on  the  flesh,  even  on 
the  very  old  and  bloodless  flesh  of  the  poor  old  fishfag, 
would  have  stood  in  no  need  of  forgiveness.  But  as  apiece 
of  slashing,  instantaneous  execution,  a  superb  snapshot  with 
brushes  and  colour,  nothing  can  go  far  beyond  it.  It  is 
done — you  may  see  it  in  every  single  brushmark — at  light- 
ning speed.  u  Careless,  hasty,  reckless  work,"  it,  and  other 
of  Hals's  work  of  the  date,  has  been  called.  Nothing  of 
the  kind.  It  is  careful — the  care  of  extreme,  though  habit- 
ual, tension  and  breathless  concentration — the  sort  of  care 
which  a  first-rate  game-shot  uses,  and  which  seems  like  a 


2l6  CHARACTER  PORTRAITS 

kind  of  jugglery  to  the  looker-on.  It  is  fully  considered, 
each  almost  shapeless  touch.  It  is  calculated,  every  splash 
of  it,  and  never  hasty  or  reckless,  though  always  at  full 
speed.  The  best — and  Hals's  best  was  good — he  could  do 
in  the  time ;  and  the  time  was,  one's  instinct  tells  one, 
limited  by  Hille  Bobbe's  patience  ;  and  that,  one's  instinct 
says  again,  was  in  its  turn  limited  by  the  depth  of  the  pew- 
ter of  schnapps  which  she  holds  in  her  withered  old  hand. 

Once  more  perhaps  that  question  :  And  was  it  worth 
the  doing  ?  — a  question  which  once  more  I  take  leave  not 
to  discuss.  Once  more  I  would  remind  the  reader  of  the 
interpretation  which  throughout  these  pages  I  have  set  upon 
the  aim  of  Frans  Hals — that  he  was  a  portrait-painter  first 
and  foremost,  and  one  in  whom  at  the  last  almost  every 
other  aim  of  the  painter  had  given  way  to  the  one  absorb- 
ing aim  of  drawing  and  setting  down  the  elusive,  momentary 
changes  of  the  features. 

As  a  portrait-painter  of  this  specific  character,  he  is  fas- 
cinated over  and  over  again,  by  what,  but  for  this  single- 
ness of  aim,  should  have  perhaps  repulsed  him,  and  would 
have  repulsed  many  another.  He  has,  in  this  single  absorp- 
tion, lost  both  the  sense  of  beauty  to  some  extent,  and  the 
sense  of  ugliness.  He  who  in  his  day  has  painted  the 
Lady  of  Cassel,  the  Olycans  of  the  Hague,  the  Van  der 
Meers  of  Amsterdam,  and  the  little  child  of  Berlin,  can 
paint  now  this  witch-like  cackling  old  fish  fag  without 
shrinking  from  her  hideousness  or  even  seeming  to  feel  it. 

However  much  we  may  lament  that  Hals  allowed  so 
many  of  his  artistic  senses  to  become  atrophied  as  he  ad- 


, 


THE   GYPSY 


CHARACTER  PORTRAITS  217 

vanced  in  life,  we  must  at  least  allow  to  him  a  rare  single- 
ness of  purpose  in  the  development  of  that  one  sense 
which  above  all  others  he  valued,  the  sense  of  direct  seeing 
and  of  unflinching  expression  of  what  he  saw.  He  did  at 
least  look  his  soul,  such  as  it  was,  in  the  face  all  along  his 
life,  and  the  one  he  had  was  at  least  his  own,  and  never 
some  one  else's  at  second  hand.  Poor  Hals  certainly  fol- 
lowed his  star,  whithersoever  it  should  lead.  It  led  him, 
indeed,  to  poverty,  for  the  evidence  is  plain  enough  that  the 
art  of  Hals  was  never  really  popular,  and  that  by  1645  ne 
had  ceased  to  be  fashionable,  and  that  by  1650  he  was  out 
in  the  cold. 

Hals  was  indeed  no  great  thinker,  and  no  moralist.  He 
was  not  a  man  with  a  mission, — probably  did  not  recognize 
the  existence  of  such  a  thing  in  art.  But  one  may  claim 
for  him,  as  one  has  claimed  before,  that  he  painted  up  to 
the  very  end  as  his  artist  instinct  showed  him,  and,  above 
all,  that  he  did  not  step  aside,  even  when  the  fuel  was  low- 
est in  the  house  of  Hals  and  the  pot  most  needed  boiling, 
to  any  of  those  unseemlinesses  which  were  more  and  more 
the  fashion  of  Dutch  Art. 

And  against  Hals  the  crime  can  hardly  be  charged  with 
much  force  if,  being  a  portrait-painter,  he  left  untouched 
that  great  field  of  worthy  peasant  life  which  modern  men 
have  seen  into.  The  crime  sits  heavier  against  those  of 
the  Dutch  School  who  immediately  followed  him,  and,  who 
making  subject  and  domestic  subject  their  motive,  yet  failed 
— with  a  few  exceptions,  such  as  Nicholas  Maes  and  Pieter 
de  Hooghe,  and  even  those  who  did  not  look  very  deep — to 


2l8  CHARACTER  PORTRAITS 

see  the  worthier  side  of  the  Dutch  peasant's  home  life. 
There  is  at  this  day  no  finer  and  more  upright  peasantry  in 
Europe,  both  physically  and  socially  than  the  Dutch. 
They  may  lack  some  of  the  more  loveable  and  winning 
qualities  which  other  peasantries  possess,  but  in  the  quali- 
ties of  self-respect  and  decency  of  home  life  there  are  none 
who  can  be  put  before  them.  And  there  is  no  reason 
whatever  to  suppose  that  they  were  otherwise  in  the  days 
of  the  Dutch  painters.  Personally  I  find  it  impossible  to 
believe  that  the  besotted,  misshapen  clowns  of  Teniers  and 
Ostade,  or  the  boozing  loafers  and  sluts  of  Jan  Steen,  were 
typical  of  the  true  peasantry  of  their  day.  It  was  to  be 
left  to  the  men  of  a  later  day,  to  Millet,  to  Israels,  to 
Mauve,  in  this  country  and  that,  to  show  that  there  was  a 
side  to  the  life,  which,  without  separation  from  the  pictur- 
esqueness  of  the  surroundings,  and  without  losing  any  of 
the  opportunities  which  they  loved,  would  have  offered  the 
Dutchmen  a  worthier  and  more  moving  field  than  that 
which  they  chose  to  occupy.  But  to  the  great  portrait- 
painter,  in  his  search  for  fantastic  variation  of  facial  ex- 
pression, such  a  view,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  lay 
outside  the  range  of  his  art. 


PORTRAIT  OF  MY  MOTHER 

(Whistler) 

CH.   MOREAU-VAUTHIER 

WITH  women,  the  solitary  and  dreamy  hours  of  the 
hearthside,  the  feelings  of  modesty,  the  desire  to 
please  and  the  fencing  of  society  talk  all  combine  to  rouse 
and  develop  the  art  of  feigning.  The  most  able  and  pro- 
found painter  of  female  portraits,  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  has 
celebrated  the  mysteries  of  woman's  character,  and  stated 
the  problem  of  her  power.  Other  painters,  while  immor- 
talizing her  features,  have  expressed  nothing  but  her  beauty. 
Whilst  the  portrait  of  a  man  will  readily  reveal  to  us  the 
secrets  of  his  mood  and  humour,  and  of  his  life,  that  of  a 
woman  will  evoke  thoughts  and  ideas  that  are  often  stran- 
gers even  to  the  original. 

To  be  set  in  the  presence  of  an  artist  who  is  applying 
himself  to  perpetuate  her  features,  what  more  serious  oc- 
casion could  there  be  for  a  woman  to  mask  her  defects,  to 
make  the  most  of  her  good  points,  to  adorn  herself  with  all 
her  attractions  and  assume  all  the  virtues  ?  Before  the  in- 
sistent gaze  of  that  man,  the  simplest  and  most  modest 
natures  do  not  succeed  in  conquering  a  secret  discomfort 
that  transfigures  them.  A  certain  venerable  lady,  the 
mother  of  one  of  our  famous  painters,  cannot  pose  before 
her  son  without  an  affected  smile.  The  scrupulous  Holbein 


220  PORTRAIT  OF  MY  MOTHER 

himself  was  deceived  by  this  when,  by  the  order  of  Henry 
VIII.,  he  went  to  paint  the  portrait  of  Anne  of  Cleves. 
After  having  been  conquered  by  the  portrait,  he  exclaimed 
when  he  saw  the  original :  "  You  have  made  me  marry  a 
Flanders  mare." 

Among  painters  of  women,  Leonardo  da  Vinci  studied 
the  being  of  infinite  mystery,  Raphael  was  attracted  by  her 
serene  and  triumphant  maternity,  Titian  displayed  her 
voluptuousness,  and  Rubens  her  fecundity,  while  the  French 
masters  of  the  Eighteenth  Century, — Watteau,  Fragonard 
and  Nattier — celebrated  her  fashionable  elegance. 

The  inexhaustible  diversity  of  nature  permitted  further 
discoveries.  Gainsborough,  with  less  style  and  less  science 
than  those  who  preceded  him,  but  with  more  spontaneity, 
facility  and  naturalness  translated  the  exquisite  company 
of  fashionable  life  and  the  fireside  by  painting  delicious 
female  silhouettes  in  an  atmosphere  of  intimacy  and 
seductiveness.  The  boldness  of  his  happy  and  sym- 
pathetic brush  was  favourable  to  this  task.  Among  those 
painters  who  were  fervent  adorers  of  Woman,  ardently 
striving  to  conquer  her  favours  and  confidences,  Gains- 
borough was  the  Cherubino  and  the  Fortunio :  his  success 
was  assured  by  his  conviction,  passion,  frankness,  and  his 
air  of  youth  and  innocence. 

Whistler  had  the  honour  to  be  passionately  discussed  by 
critics,  and  experienced  the  satisfaction  of  triumphing  over 
his  detractors.  This  he  accomplished  with  great  wit. 
The  author  of  the  book,  "The  gentle  art  of  making 
enemies,"  Whistler,  whose  friends  and  admirers  are  in- 


PORTRAIT  OF  MY  MOTHER  221 

numerable,  in  the  hour  of  success  collected  his  principal 
works,  and  took  an  ironical  pleasure  in  cutting  out  and 
placing  under  the  pictures  the  old  and  new  criticisms  to 
which  they  had  been  subjected.  And  the  meeting  of  the 
two  opinions  was  most  amusing  as  well  as  most  instructive 
for  the  fine  fellows  who  still  harbour  any  doubts  regarding 
the  versatility  of  human  judgment. 

We  cannot  look  at  this  canvas  without  experiencing  a 
feeling  of  respect  and  tenderness.  In  the  melancholy  of 
pale  whites  and  faint  blacks,  everything  fades  as  in  a 
dream.  That  mourning  garb,  that  attitude,  that  air  of 
far-away  reverie  and  that  lassitude  of  the  arms  all  unite  to 
figure  the  human  being  of  devotion  whose  tender  devotion 
the  child  cannot  divine,  and  whom  the  man  so  often  loses 
and  bewails  when  he  begins  to  be  able  to  comprehend  it. 

Sitting  in  profile,  she  is  at  that  age  when,  having  fulfilled 
her  duty,  she  effaces  herself  and  submits  without  rebellion 
to  the  fatality  of  her  accomplished  role.  Her  feet  brought 
together,  the  direct  line  of  her  body,  her  head,  and  her 
gaze,  speak  of  her  habits  of  order,  rectitude  and  dignity, 
but  the  gentle  relaxation  of  her  arms  reveal  merited  and 
desired  repose.  With  her  fingers  she  crumples  a  little 
lace  handkerchief.  Is  this  a  slight  touching  remainder  of 
coquetry  ?  Is  it  not  rather  for  drying  a  few  furtive  tears 
that  have  fallen  from  those  eyes  whose  gaze,  scarcely 
raised,  is  so  sad  and  pensive  ?  Is  she  not  praying  for  those 
who  were,  for  those  who  still  live,  for  the  little  ones,  for 
those  who  have  last  come  into  the  family,  whom  perhaps 
she  reproached  herself  for  loving  too  dearly  ?  For  the 


222  PORTRAIT  OF  MY  MOTHER 

time  is  approaching  when  she  will  have  to  leave  them  all. 
And  there  she  sits  in  profile,  in  her  modest  and  simple  cap, 
and  grey  hair  5  she  effaces  herself,  she  is  fading  away,  so  to 
speak,  she  is  already  departing  in  the  noble  resignation  of 
her  renunciation. 

Such  a  portrait  would  suffice  for  the  glory  of  any 
painter. 

In  Whistler's  work,  however,  there  are  a  great  number 
of  other  imposing  portraits,  among  which  the  adorable 
image  of  Miss  Alexander,  and  the  magnificent  silhouette 
of  Carlyle  (Glasgow  Museum),  of  such  proud  gravity, 
present  the  same  originality  of  execution  and  the  same 
sober  and  distinguished  style. 

If  this  expression  had  not  become  vulgar  and  common 
from  frequent  use,  I  should  say  that  Whistler  was  a 
painter  of  the  future :  he  announces  a  new  art  outlook  and 
even  particularizes  its  character.  After  having  exhausted 
all  the  resources  of  colour  and  design  in  order  to  represent 
matter,  after  also  having  been  an  exact  imitator  of  the  real 
as  possible,  the  artist  turns  his  attention  to  the  beyond. 
At  the  moment  when  Science  itself  is  preoccupied  with 
the  invisible  and  is  attempting  to  break  down  the  barriers 
behind  which  the  physical  world  is  hiding,  it  is  not  aston- 
ishing that  the  painters  should  desire  to  show  the  spirit  of 
things  and  bring  what  is  beyond  the  domain  of  matter  be- 
fore our  eyes.  Certainly  the  attempt  is  a  bold  one,  but 
why  should  it  be  regarded  as  impracticable  ? 

The  route  by  which  man  has  laboriously  advanced  for 
centuries  leads  to  the  infinite.  As  soon  as  we  see  a  new 


PORTRAIT  OF  MY  MOTHER  223 

light  on  the  horizon,  we  must  rejoice  and  hope  on,  and, 
like  the  Crusaders  marching  towards  the  Holy  City,  we 
must  ask  those  who  lead  and  guide  us  :  u  Is  that  Jerusa- 
lem ?  Is  that  the  sacred  goal  ?  Finally,  is  it  the  sacred 
unknown  to  which  all  our  efforts  are  directed  ?  " 


MARIE  ANTOINETTE  AS  HEBE 

(Drouais) 

F.  A.  GRUYER 

FRANCOIS-HUBERT  DROUAIS,  son  and  grand- 
son of  painters,  was  born  in  Paris,  Dec.  I4th,  1727. 
His  father,  Hubert  Drouais,  was  his  first  master.  Later  he 
studied  under  Nonotte,  Carlo  Vanloo,  Natoire  and  Boucher. 
Admitted  to  the  Academy  in  1754,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
seven,  he  was  elected  an  Academician  Nov.  25th,  1758,  on 
producing  the  portraits  of  Messrs.  Coustou  and  Bouchardon. 
(The  first  of  these  portraits  is  at  Versailles,  and  the  second 
at  the  School  of  Fine  Arts.)  For  a  year  past,  his  fame  as 
a  portrait  painter  had  had  him  called  to  Versailles,  where  he 
had  made  his  debut  by  means  of  the  portraits  of  the  Duke 
of  Berry  and  the  Count  of  Provence.  Afterwards  he 
painted  the  entire  royal  family.  Thenceforth  there  were 
no  celebrated  personages,  nor  ladies  remarkable  for  their 
beauty,  who  were  not  painted  by  him.  The  painter  of  the 
king,  and  the  painter  of  the  Dauphin  and  Dauphine,  he 
was  appointed  Councillor  of  the  Academy,  July  2d,  1774. 
Nothing  was  then  lacking  to  his  glory.  This  proves  that 
at  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.  glory,  in  matters  of 
art,  was  a  pretty  small  affair.  Drouais  was  at  the  pinnacle 
of  taste  of  high  French  society  at  that  decisive  moment  of 
its  history.  That  was  at  the  moment  when  the  court  went 


MARIE  ANTOINETTE  AS  HEBE 


MARIE  ANTOINETTE  AS  HEBE  225 

wild  over  a  false  love  for  the  fields ;  those  were  the  great 
days  of  the  Trianon.  Drouais  shows  us  Charles  Philippe 
of  France,  afterwards  Charles  X.,  Count  of  Artois,  follow- 
ing the  goat  on  which  is  mounted  Marie  Adelaide  Clotildc 
Xavier  of  France  (afterwards  Queen  of  Sardinia,  born  in 
1759,  died  in  1802).  He  is  six  years  of  age,  and  on  his 
grey  satin  vest  he  wears  the  blue  cordon  of  the  Saint  Esprit, 
The  lady  is  four  years -of  age;  she  is  clothed  in  white,  with 
a  rose  ribbon  round  her  neck,  and  affectedly  holds  a  basket 
filled  with  fruit.  Both  of  them,  with  hair  elegantly  dressed, 
powdered,  and  cheeks  larded  with  cosmetics,  deign  to 
assume  commanding  airs  in  a  landscape  of  wearisome  ar- 
rangement. It  reminds  us  of  the  Lesson  in  Horsemanship. 
(This  picture  is  signed  and  dated:  Drouais  le  fils,  1763. 
Its  pendant  was  the  Music  Lesson^  in  which  the  Count  of 
Provence  was  the  principal  actor.  Both  pictures  have  been 
engraved  by  Beauvarlet.)  The  painter  to  the  king  has 
arranged  his  precious  models  as  M.  Baudier  de  Laval,  the 
dancing-master  of  the  children  of  the  crown  of  France, 
would  have  done.  Pictures  of  this  nature  are  certainly  not 
good  pictures,  but  they  are  historical  documents. 

Diderot's  judgment  on  the  portraits  by  Drouais  is  amus- 
ing, but  it  is  not  absolutely  just.  "  All  the  faces  by  that 
man  are  nothing  but  the  most  affected  vermilion  red,  ar- 
tistically laid  upon  the  finest  and  whitest  chalk.  That  is 
not  flesh.  It  is  a  mask  of  that  fine  skin  of  which  they 
make  gloves  in  Strasbourg."  In  fine,  he  painted  his  models 
just  as  he  saw  them  pose  before  him.  If  he  shows  them 
plastered  with  cosmetics  and  powdered,  that  is  just  as  they 


226  MARIE  ANTOINETTE  AS  HEBE 

really  were.  His  fault  was  in  having  as  clients  people 
of  a  world  in  which  such  usages  were  the  law.  Drouais 
died  Oct.  2ist,  1775.  He  had  exhibited  in  the  Salons 
from  1755  to  1775.  His  principal  portraits  are  in  the 
Louvre,  and  more  particularly  at  Versailles.  The  portrait 
of  Marie  Antoinette,  at  the  Conde  Museum,  Chantilly,  is 
of  extreme  interest. 

Marie  Antoinette  Jeanne  of  Lorraine,  born  in  Vienna, 
Nov.  2d,  1755,  was  the  youngest  daughter  of  the  Emperor 
of  Austria,  Francis  I.,  and  Maria  Theresa,  Queen  of  Hun- 
gary and  Bohemia.  She  was  scarcely  fourteen  years  of  age 
when  Louis  XV.  instructed  the  Duke  of  Choiseul  to  re- 
quest her  hand  for  the  Dauphin.  Maria  Theresa,  being 
anxious  to  give  an  accomplished  queen  to  France,  took 
another  year  to  perfect  an  education  that  Metastasio  and 
the  elder  Gluck  had  begun,  and  which  thenceforth  confided 
to  French  masters.  In  addition,  she  requested  the  Court 
of  Versailles  to  supply  her  with  a  learned  priest  who  would 
be  able  to  instruct  the  princess  in  the  manners  and  customs 
of  the  country  over  which  some  day  she  was  to  reign.  The 
Duke  of  Choiseul's  choice  fell  upon  the  Abbe  of  Ver- 
mond,  who  took  charge  of  Marie  Antoinette  and  exercised 
a  fatal  influence  upon  her  by  narrowing  her  mind  instead 
of  enlarging  it.  The  future  Dauphine  was  brought  into 
France  in  1770;  she  came  by  way  of  Strasbourg,  and 
passed  through  Nancy,  Chalons,  Soissons  and  Reims, 
where  great  rejoicings  were  given  in  her  honour.  King 
Louis  XV.  and  the  Dauphin  came  to  receive  her  at  Com- 
piegne.  Two  days  later,  they  led  her  solemnly  to  Ver- 


MARIE  ANTOINETTE  AS  HEBE  227 

sailles,  where  she  was  married  in  the  chapel  of  the  palace 
on  May  i6th,  1770.  In  celebration  of  this  event,  the 
King  commanded  fetes  at  Paris  as  well  as  at  Versailles, 
twenty  millions  of  francs  to  be  devoted  to  the  occasion, — a 
foolish  prodigality  in  the  existing  poverty  of  the  public 
treasury.  We  all  know  what  happened :  the  stands  con- 
structed on  the  Place  Louis  XV.  collapsed  during  the  fire- 
works, with  a  result  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  dead 
and  twelve  hundred  injured.  A  sinister  presage  for  the 
Dauphine ! 

The  Court  gave  a  cold  welcome  to  Marie  Antoinette : 
Madame  Adelaide,  Madame  Victoire  and  Madame  Sophie 
regarded  her  with  distrust :  Marie  Antoinette  vainly  re- 
doubled her  conciliatory  efforts ;  she  could  not  break  the 
ice.  As  for  Madame  Du  Barry,  she  hid  her  hostility  in  a 
show  of  respect,  in  exchange  for  which  the  Dauphine  ex- 
hibited nothing  but  contempt.  The  daughter  of  Maria 
Theresa,  accustomed  to  the  simplicity  that  prevailed  in  the 
court  of  Austria,  found  herself  quite  exiled  in  the  midst  of 
the  fatiguing  etiquette  of  Versailles,  which  was  still  the 
same  at  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.  as  it  had  been  at 
the  most  solemn  moment  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV. 
The  young  Dauphine  could  not  accustom  herself  to  it,  and 
made  fun  of  it  at  every  opportunity ;  that  was  her  way  of 
comforting  herself;  but  all  those  who  lived  in  it,  and  Heaven 
knows  their  number  was  big  enough,  all  those,  or  rather  all 
those  who  owed  certain  prerogatives  they  enjoyed  to  those 
old  usages,  such  as  certain  rights  of  precedence,  to  which 
they  clung  as  to  patrimonies,  became  hostile  to  her. 


228  MARIE  ANTOINETTE  AS  HEBE 

Thenceforth,  calumny  hung  on  to  her  and  accompanied  her 
everywhere.  Beautiful,  young  and  adored,  she  was  accused 
of  all  the  licence  that  prevailed  in  that  corrupt  court.  Her 
marriage  with  the  Dauphin  had  marked  a  new  departure  in 
French  politics;  the  Duke  of  Choiseul  turned  decisively 
towards  Austria,  our  constant  antagonist.  The  discontent 
that  resulted  from  this  was  general,  and  re-acted  upon  the 
Dauphine.  The  public  already  called  her  "  The  Austrian," 
and  this  was  the  name  that  was  to  hound  her  until  her  final 
catastrophe.  Unsufficiently  protected  by  a  good-humoured 
husband,  the  damaging  imputations  of  the  first  hours,  skil- 
fully propagated  in  the  closest  surroundings  of  the  Dauphin, 
prepared  the  way,  from  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV., 
for  the  odious  insinuations  that,  twenty  years  later,  were  to 
cause  the  queen  to  lose  her  head.  From  the  first  years  of 
her  abode  in  France,  the  Dauphine  undoubtedly  committed 
numerous  faults  of  conduct,  but  was  she  not  cast  amid  the 
most  detestable  surroundings  in  which  the  education  of  a 
woman  and  a  queen  could  be  completed?  Let  us  read 
again  that  correct  judgment  formed  of  her  by  her  brother, 
Joseph  II.  He  spoke  of  his  sister  in  these  terms  in  1777. 
(She  had  then  been  queen  for  two  years ;  but  in  her  moral  as 
well  as  in  her  physical  nature  nothing  had  suffered  any 
change.)  "  She  is  an  amiable  and  virtuous  woman,  some- 
what young  and  thoughtless,  but  at  bottom  she  has  a  fund 
of  honesty  and  virtue  that  at  her  age  is  truly  worthy  of  re- 
spect. With  all  this  she  possesses  wit  and  a  just  penetra- 
tion that  have  frequently  astonished  me.  Her  first  impulse 
is  always  the  right  one ;  if  she  were  to  give  way  to  it  and 


MARIE  ANTOINETTE  AS  HEBE  22Q 

listen  a  little  less  to  the  people  who  have  her  ear,  who  are 
numerous  and  varied,  she  would  be  perfect."  Having  now 
recalled  what  sort  of  person  the  Dauphine  was,  let  us  look 
at  her  portrait. 

The  portrait  of  the  Dauphine  which  we  find  in  the 
Chantilly  Gallery  is  signed  Drouais,  and  dated  1773.  The 
daughter  of  Maria  Theresa  has  probably  not  yet  reached 
her  eighteenth  year,  and  has  been  in  France  scarcely  three 
years.  Wanting  to  have  her  portrait  painted,  she  applies 
to  the  painter  to  the  king,  Drouais,  who,  in  accordance 
with  a  custom  that  is  already  superannuated,  represents  her 
as  Hebe.  In  order  to  give  an  air  of  apotheosis  to  this  kind 
of  portrait,  Drouais  possessed  neither  the  richness  of  im- 
agination, nor  resource  as  a  designer,  nor  the  suave  colour- 
ing of  a  Nattier.  His  painting, "  chalky  and  vermilionized  " 
generally  gave  an  air  of  heaviness  to  what  he  touched,  and 
consequently  was  far  from  being  what  was  needed  for 
transporting  such  a  lovely  model  to  Olympus.  Till  that 
date,  Marie  Antoinette  had  not  been  spoiled  by  her  paint- 
ers ;  and  we  may  even  add  that  she  never  was.  Before  the 
portrait  by  Drouais,  our  iconographic  information  regarding 
this  beautiful  and  touching  face  is  entirely  insufficient. 
About  1757,  Martin  de  Mytens,  in  showing  us  the  numer- 
ous Imperial  family  grouped  about  Francis  I.  and  Maria 
Theresa,  places  in  an  arm-chair  the  Archduchess  Marie 
Antoinette,  aged  two.  We  find  her  again,  at  ten  years  of 
age,  dancing  in  the  forefront  of  the  ballet  given  at  Schoen- 
brunn,  January  24th,  1765,  on  the  occasion  of  the  marriage 
of  the  future  emperor  Joseph  II.  Three  years  later, 


230  MARIE  ANTOINETTE  AS  HEBE 

Ducreux  came  to  Vienna  to  paint  her,  in  order  to  supply 
the  court  of  France  with  some  idea  of  its  future  Dauphine. 
And  then,  that  is  all,  until  the  day  when  Drouais  adorns 
with  a  grace  and  elegance  that  is  entirely  French  her  who 
is  soon  to  be  "  the  little  queen."  She  is  still  far  from  being 
in  the  plenitude  of  her  beauty.  One  might  call  her  a  flower 
not  yet  fully  blown. 

The  Dauphine  as  Hebe,  seated  among  the  clouds,  holds 
in  her  right  hand  a  ewer  of  rock  crystal,  mounted  in  gold, 
and  in  her  left  a  gold  cup,  on  the  rim  of  which  are  written 
the  painter's  name  and  the  date  of  the  portrait ;  "  Drouais^ 
1773."  The  eagle  is  on  her  right;  his  eye  is  shot  with 
blood,  his  beak  half-open  and  his  tongue  looking  like  a 
flame,  he  grips  the  thunderbolts  and  watches  over  the 
daughter  of  Jupiter  and  Juno  with  a  jealous  eye. 

In  order  to  represent  the  goddess  of  youth,  no  woman 
could  ever  have  proved  a  better  choice  than  the  youthful 
Marie  Antoinette.  The  head,  without  being  exactly 
beautiful,  is  charming;  the  neck,  flexible  and  admirably 
set,  carries  it  with  a  hauteur  that  is  entirely  devoid  of 
affectation.  Abundant  tresses,  drawn  up  high  from  the 
forehead,  form  a  double  crown  on  the  top  of  the  head,  and 
because  of  this  arrangement  the  head,  which  is  naturally 
somewhat  narrow,  looks  still  narrower  and  disproportion- 
ately tall.  Under  brown  arched  brows  of  very  pure  line, 
almond  eyes  of  a  grey  that  is  almost  blue  and  not  very  large 
look  out  with  a  gaze  of  infinite  gentleness.  The  aquiline 
nose  is  long  and  heavy  at  the  nostrils.  The  mouth,  neither 
large  nor  small,  with  rather  thick  lips,  shows  amiability 


MARIE  ANTOINETTE  AS  HEBE  231 

and  intelligence.  The  neck  and  curves  of  the  cheeks  are 
perfect  in  form.  The  ear  is  mediocre  in  drawing,  but  this 
is  doubtless  the  fault  of  the  painter.  Why  is  there  so 
much  cosmetic  on  the  cheeks  and  even  on  the  lips  ?  Why 
hide  the  freshness  of  the  natural  colours  of  youth  under 
plasters  of  vermilion  ?  As  for  the  body,  slender,  light, 
elegant,  and  apparently  not  yet  fully  developed,  it  is  robed 
in  a  tunic  of  pale  rose  gauze,  which  leaves  the  neck  and 
throat  entirely  bare,  falls  over  the  shoulders,  covers  the 
arms  almost  down  to  the  elbows,  leaves  the  breast  un- 
covered, and  drapes  the  lower  portion  of  the  body  which  is 
cut  across  at  the  legs  by  the  frame.  A  girdle  of  a  stronger 
rose  is  tied  at  the  waist  over  this  tunic,  which  therefore 
has  the  appearance  of  a  real  robe.  For  the  sake  of  com- 
pleteness, let  us  add  a  scarf  of  white  tulle  rolled  around 
the  left  arm  which,  as  well  as  the  hand,  is  very  delicately 
drawn,  and  a  long  veil  of  varied  hue  changing  from  blue  to 
grey,  violet  and  rose  envelops  the  whole  figure  which  looks 
still  that  of  a  virgin  rather  than  already  that  of  a  wife. 
For  the  background,  we  have  a  blue  sky  in  which 
light  rosy  clouds  are  floating.  The  Dauphine  was  at  that 
time  the  very  image  of  youth,  and  in  the  mythological 
taste  in  which  the  court  of  Louis  XV.  was  still  lingering, 
there  is  nothing  astonishing  in  the  fact  that  they  should 
make  a  Hebe  of  her.  To  give  her  something  aerial  in 
feeling  the  painter  had  only  to  stick  to  the  truth.  Al- 
though it  lacks  character,  this  painting  is  very  charming. 
Before  it,  imagination  and  sentiment  make  themselves  ac- 
complices of  the  painter.  We  cannot  look  at  this  young 


232  MARIE  ANTOINETTE  AS  HEBE 

woman,  I  was  going  to  say  this  young  girl,  without 
emotion,  and  there  is  only  one  step  from  emotion  to 
admiration. 

What  is  particularly  wanting  in  this  picture  is  the 
flame  of  life,  the  accent  of  nature,  the  characteristic 
features  of  the  race ;  but  what  sort  of  a  court  painter  was 
then  able  to  put  these  into  his  portraits  ?  Nevertheless, 
the  House  of  Austria  could  not  fail  to  be  recognized  in 
this  Drouais  portrait. 

Madame  Vigee-Lebrun,  in  her  Souvenirs^  has  left  us  a 
portrait  of  Marie  Antoinette  that  has  greater  resemblance 
to  the  original  than  any  other  she  made ;  for  in  her  painted 
portraits  her  enthusiasm  over  the  queen  caused  her  to  lose 
sight  of  the  reality.  (There  are  four  of  her  portraits  of 
Marie  Antoinette  at  Versailles.)  Let  us  read  this  word  por- 
trait we  shall  find  the  Dauphine  there  again :  u  She  was  tall 
and  admirably  well  made.  Her  arms  were  superb.  Her 
hands  were  superb  and  of  perfect  form,  and  her  feet  were 
charming.  She  walked  more  gracefully  than  any  other 
woman  in  France.  She  carried  her  head  very  elegantly 
with  a  majesty  that  made  people  recognize  the  sovereign  in 
the  midst  of  the  whole  court,  without,  however,  this 
majesty  injuring  in  the  slightest  all  that  was  gentle  and 
benevolent  in  her  spirit :  it  is  very  difficult  to  give  any 
idea  of  so  many  graces  and  so  much  nobility  united.  Her 
features  were  not  regular;  she  derived  from  her  family  that 
long  and  narrow  oval  that  is  peculiar  to  it.  Her  eyes  were 
not  large ;  their  colour  was  almost  blue ;  her  gaze  was 
soft  and  full  of  intelligence ;  her  mouth  was  not  too  large, 


MARIE  ANTOINETTE  AS  HEBE  233 

although  the  lips  were  rather  thick.  But  the  most  re- 
markable thing  about  her  face  was  its  wonderful  com- 
plexion ;  I  never  saw  one  so  brilliant  is  the  word,  for  her 
skin  was  so  transparent  that  it  took  no  shadow.  Her 
head,  held  high  on  a  beautiful  Greek  neck,  gave  her  when 
she  walked  an  air  so  imposing,  so  majestic,  that  one  might 
have  taken  her  for  a  goddess  surrounded  by  her  nymphs. 
I  allowed  myself  to  express  to  Her  Majesty  the  impression 
that  I  had  received  and  how  greatly  the  elevation  of  her 
head  added  to  the  nobility  of  her  aspect.  She  replied  in  a 
jesting  tone  :  "  If  I  were  not  a  queen,  people  would  say 
that  I  had  an  insolent  bearing,  is  it  not  so  ?  "  Thus  we 
see  that  the  portrait  by  Drouet  was  incontestably  a  good 
likeness.  Why  was  it  necessary  for  this  painter  to  rob  us 
of  the  splendour  of  that  incomparable  complexion  by 
covering  it  with  cosmetics  ? 

This  portrait  came  from  the  Lenoir  collection.  Bachau- 
mont,  in  his  Memoires  speaks  of  it  in  referring  to  the  Salon 
of  1773. 


PHILIP  II.  OF  SPAIN 

(Titian) 

J.  A.  CROWE  AND  G.  B.  CAVALCASELLE 

THE  principal  object  for  which  Titian  was  called  to 
Augsburg  was  not  to  sit  to  Cranach,  nor  to  portray 
afresh  the  Kaiser,  or  the  princes  and  nobles  around  him. 
The  whole  bent  of  Charles's  policy  and  wishes  was  to 
promote  his  son ;  to  this  end  every  consideration  was  made 
subordinate  and  every  detail  was  calculated.  As  Charles 
of  old  had  had  to  put  away  the  gossiping  and  friendly  man- 
ner of  a  Fleming  to  take  upon  himself  the  starched  and 
haughty  air  of  a  Spaniard,  so  Philip  now  had  to  divest  him- 
self of  the  stiffness  of  a  Castilian  and — not  without  reluc- 
tance we  may  think — to  assume  the  friendly  Eiederkeit  of 
a  German.  He  rode  German  horses,  danced  German 
dances,  and  tried  his  head  and  stomach  at  German  drinking- 
parties.  But  the  days  were  past  when  his  ancestor  Philip 
of  Burgundy  drank  an  abbot  under  the  table.  Philip  of 
Spain  was  no  more  capable  constitutionally  to  bear  the 
coarse  but  copious  fare  of  the  north  than  he  was  able 
physically  to  unbend  and  ape  a  jovial  manner.  He  was 
not  strong  nor  fond  of  martial  exercise.  His  chest  was 
narrow  and  his  legs  were  spare,  and  his  feet  were  large 
and  curiously  ungainly.  His  eyes  lay  under  lids  like  rolls 
of  flesh  and  full  of  bilious  humour,  as  if  the  gall  which 


PHILIP  II   OF  SPAIN 


PHILIP  II.  OP  SPAIN  235 

gave  its  olive  tone  to  his  complexion  was  anxious  to  gush 
and  show  itself.  His  projecting  under-jaw  was  poorly  con- 
cealed by  a  downy  chestnut  beard,  which  by  its  paucity 
gave  but  more  importance  to  a  pair  of  thick  and  fleshy  lips, 
the  chief  characteristic  of  which  was  redness.  Add  to  this 
an  oily  smoothness  of  complexion,  and  short  chestnut  hair, 
and  we  have  the  face  of  the  prince  whose  form  won  the 
heart  of  Mary  Tudor;  whose  sensualism  was  only  equalled 
by  his  disregard  for  all  that  was  good  and  kind  in  human 
nature ;  whose  fanaticism  sent  hundreds  of  the  noblest  vic- 
tims to  the  stake  or  the  block ;  whose  policy  dictated  the 
Armada  and  lost  the  Netherlands  to  Spain.  It  was  for  the 
purpose  of  making  a  likeness  of  this  prince,  who  was  then 
twenty-four  years  old,  that  Titian  was  called  to  Augsburg. 
He  had  not  been  more  than  a  month  at  the  court  when  he 
finished  the  preliminary  canvas.  In  the  following  February 
he  probably  completed  the  large  full-length  which  hangs  in 
the  Museum  at  Madrid,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  suc- 
cessive years  he  sent  forth  the  long  series  of  copies,  the 
best  of  which  adorns  the  gallery  of  Naples. 

That  we  should  enjoy  in  the  case  of  Philip  of  Spain  both 
the  original  sketch  for  which  he  sat,  and  the  parade  portrait 
for  which  he  did  not  sit,  is  an  advantage  seldom  vouchsafed 
to  admirers  of  Titian.  It  is  clear  that  the  master's  methods 
of  preparing  pictures  intended  to  be  finished  was  different 
from  that  which  he  practiced  in  throwing  off  work  at  one 
painting.  In  the  first  case  a  known  process  or  a  series  of 
processes  was  systematically  carried  out,  so  as  to  produce 
substance,  impost  and  tone.  In  the  second  the  sole  aim  of 


236  PHILIP  H.  OF  SPAIN 

the  artist  was  to  determine  form  and  expression  during  the 
curt  and  rapidly  fleeting  moments  conceded  by  a  royal  and 
— we  may  believe — impatient  sitter.  The  sketch  for  which 
Philip  of  Spain  sat  to  Titian  is  one  of  the  Barbarigo  heir- 
looms now  in  the  house  of  Count  Sebastian  Giustiniani 
Barbarigo  at  Padua.  The  Prince  is  sitting,  large  as  life, 
near  an  opening  through  which  a  landscape  and  sky  are 
seen,  in  front  of  a  brown  curtain  damasked  with  arabesques 
and  white  flowers.  His  face  and  body  are  turned  to  the 
left,  the  axe  of  the  eyeballs  facing  the  spectator.  A  doublet 
of  black  silk  buttoned  up  to  the  neck  allows  the  frill  of  a 
shirt  to  be  seen.  Over  it  lies  a  pelisse  of  white  silk,  with 
a  lining  and  broad  collar  of  dark  fur,  and  sleeves  swelling 
into  slashed  puffs  at  the  shoulder.  The  chain  of  the  Golden 
Fleece  falls  over  the  breast.  Part  of  the  head  shows  its 
short  chestnut  hair  cropping  out  from  a  black  berret  cap 
sown  with  pearls.  The  hands  are  roughly  outlined  with 
the  white  pigment  which  serves  to  colour  the  pelisse,  so  as 
to  give  the  movement  without  even  an  indication  of  the 
fingers.  The  left,  on  the  arm  of  a  chair,  bound  in  dark 
cloth  fastened  with  red  buttons,  the  right  holding  what 
seems  to  be  a  baton  or  the  rudiment  of  a  sceptre.  Look- 
ing carefully  at  this  canvas,  which  has  only  been  injured  in 
the  least  important  parts,  we  discern  that  the  face  was  struck 
off  from  the  life  rapidly,  almost  hurriedly,  as  if  the  master 
was  conscious  that  unless  he  lashed  himself  into  a  fury  of 
haste  he  would  not  catch  quick  enough  the  shape,  the 
action,  the  colour,  and  the  characteristic  individualism,  or 
the  complexion  and  temper  of  the  Prince.  Like  a  general 


PHILIP  H.  OF  SPAIN  237 

in  the  thick  of  a  fight,  who  sees  through  the  smoke  and 
hears  amidst  the  din,  and  curtly  but  decisively  gives  the 
orders  which  secures  a  victory,  Titian  rouses  himself  to 
a  momentary  concentration  of  faculties,  instinctively  but 
surely  gives  the  true  run  and  accent  of  the  lines,  and  then 
subsides,  sure  of  success,  into  rest.  His  whole  power  was 
brought  to  bear  on  the  head,  of  which  he  gave  the  linea- 
ments and  modelling  with  spare  pigment  on  a  very  thin 
smooth  canvas,  the  sallow  flesh  light  merging  into  half 
tones  of  clear  red,  the  darker  shadows,  as  of  eye  and  nostril, 
laid  on  in  black.  Who  does  not  see  the  application  of  the 
old  principle,  famous  for  having  been  enunciated  by  Titian  : 
"  Black,  red,  and  white,  and  all  three  well  in  hand  "  ?  The 
sketch,  it  is  evident,  is  not  such  as  the  master  would  have 
shown  even  to  the  Prince  if  he  could  help  it,  being  as  it 
were  his  own  private  memorandum,  his  "  pensee  intime" 
meant  for  himself  and  no  other,  a  thing  that  was  neither 
drawing  nor  painting,  yet  partaking  of  both,  and  sufficient 
for  the  reproduction  of  either ; — a  surface  without  the  charm 
of  rich  tint  or  broken  modulation,  but  masterly,  as  giving 
in  a  few  strokes  the  moral  and  physical  aspect  of  his  sitter. 
Being  now  possessed  of  the  sketch,  Titian  leisurely  used 
it  as  a  groundwork  to  compose  his  show  portraits  of  Philip, 
his  first  business  being  to  represent  the  Prince  as  a  captain 
in  damasked  steel,  and  then  to  display  his  form  in  the  dress 
of  the  court  and  drawing-room.  In  each  of  these  replicas 
he  changed  the  attitude  and  costume  whilst  the  head  re- 
mained the  same.  Of  the  first  the  Prince  in  armour  at 
Madrid  is  the  earliest,  and  the  one  to  which  an  interesting 


238  PHILIP  II.  OF  SPAIN 

fragment  of  history  is  attached.  Knowing  the  type  of 
Philip's  face  and  the  blemishes  of  his  figure,  we  should 
think  it  hard  for  a  painter  to  realize  a  portrait  of  him  true 
to  nature,  yet  of  elevated  conception  and  regal  mien. 
Titian  overcomes  the  difficulty  with  ease.  The  sallow 
ill-shaped  face  may  haunt  us  and  suggest  uneasy  forebod- 
ings as  to  the  spirit  and  temper  of  the  man,  but  gloom 
here  is  cleverly  concealed  in  grave  intentness,  and  every 
line  tells  of  the  habitual  distinction  of  a  man  of  old  blood 
and  high  station.  The  head  we  saw  is  the  same  as  in  the 
sketch.  It  stands  out  from  the  gorget  relieved  by  a  frill  of 
white  linen,  beneath  which  the  handsome  collar  of  the 
Golden  Fleece  falls  to  the  chest.  A  breastplate  and  hip 
pieces  richly  inlaid  with  gold  cover  the  frame  and  arms. 
The  fine  embroidery  of  the  sleeves  and  slashed  hose,  the 
white  silk  tights  and  slashed  white  slippers,  form  a  rich  and 
tasteful  dress.  The  ringed  left  hand  on  the  hilt  of  the 
rapier,  the  right  on  the  plumed  morion  which  lies  on  a 
console  covered  with  a  crimson  velvet  cloth,  the  whole 
figure  seen  in  front  of  a  dark  wall — all  this  makes  up  a 
splendid  and  attractive  full-length  standing  on  a  carpet  of  a 
deep  reddish  brown. 

When  Charles  the  Fifth  preferred  the  suit  of  Philip  to 
Mary  Tudor  in  1553,  n^s  sister  Mary  of  Hungary  sent 
Titian's  masterpiece  at  the  Queen's  request  to  Renard,  the 
Spanish  envoy  in  London,  telling  him  "  that  it  was  thought 
very  like  when  executed  three  years  before,  but  had  been 
injured  in  the  carriage  from  Augsburg  to  Brussels.  Still,  if 
seen  in  its  proper  light  and  at  a  fitting  distance,  Titian's 


PHILIP  H.  OF  SPAIN  ^39 

pictures  not  bearing  to  be  looked  at  too  closely,  it  would 
enable  the  Queen,  by  adding  three  years  to  the  Prince's 
age,  to  judge  of  his  present  appearance."  Renard  was 
further  directed  to  present  the  canvas  to  Her  Majesty  with 
instructions  to  have  it  returned  when  the  living  original 
had  been  substituted  for  the  lifeless  semblance. 

Had  not  Mary  been  previously  flattered  at  the  prospect 
of  matching  herself  to  a  prince  so  much  her  junior,  she 
might  have  been  induced  by  the  mere  sight  of  this  piece  to 
entertain  the  proposal  of  Charles  the  Fifth.  As  it  proved, 
her  prepossession  was  betrayed  to  her  courtiers  by  admira- 
tion of  the  picture,  of  which  Strype  reports  that  she  was 
greatly  enamoured.  After  the  marriage  in  1554  this  most 
important  work  of  art  was  faithfully  returned  to  Mary  of 
Hungary,  who  took  it  to  Spain  in  I556.1 

A  school  replica,  made  by  Orazio  or  Cesare  Vecelli, 
under  Titian's  superintendence,  is  preserved  at  Chatsworth, 
of  which  there  was  a  poor  example  in  the  Northwick  Col- 
lection. 

In  March,  1553,  Titian  sent  his  second  version  of  the 
portrait  to  Philip,  and  this  version — it  may  be — is  that 
which  now  hangs  in  the  Museum  of  Naples,  where  the 
figure  is  altered  so  as  to  bring  the  right  hand  to  the  waist, 
and  show  the  left  holding  a  glove,  whilst  the  frame  is  clad 
in  a  splendid  doublet  of  white  silk  shot  with  gold,  the  puffs 

1  This  picture,  to  which  a  piece  has  been  added  all  around,  is  now  in 
the  Madrid  Museum,  on  canvas.  There  are  patches  of  re-touching  on 
the  right  hand  and  thigh,  and  here  and  there  a  flaw  in  other  parts.  But 
it  is  a  fine  work  in  the  best  style  of  this  the  broad  period  of  Titian's  style. 
We  find  it  noted  in  the  inventory  of  Mary  of  Hungary  (1558). 


240  PHILIP  n.  OF  SPAIN 

of  the  sleeves  being  braced  with  red  bands  and  the  short 
mantle  lined  with  dark  fur.  Of  this  fine  piece,  which  is 
hardly  inferior  to  that  of  Madrid,  numerous  repetitions  or 
copies  exist,  one  of  them  at  Blenheim  by  some  disciple  of 
the  master,  another  better  still  at  the  Pitti,  whilst  two  or 
three  feebler  imitations  are  shown  at  Castle  Howard,  in  the 
collection  of  Lord  Stanhope  and  in  the  Corsini  Palace  at 
Rome. 


MRS.  SCOTT  MONCRIEFF 

(Sir  Henry  Raeburn) 

JAMES  L.  CAW 

MORE  exclusively,  perhaps,  than  any  other  artist  of 
equal  talent,  Sir  Henry  Raeburn  was  a  portrait- 
painter.  But,  if  he  left  nothing  that  he  described  as  other 
than  a  portrait,  his  pictorial  sense  was  so  active  that  each 
of  his  finer  things,  vital  though  it  is  with  biographical  inter- 
est, is  a  picture  also.  At  once  admirable  biography  and 
great  art,  his  work  reveals  a  range  and  variety  which  one 
would  scarcely  expect  from  the  restricted  nature  of  his  sub- 
jects. His  pictures  are  neither  signed  nor  dated,  and  his 
style  matured  early  and  shows  no  very  marked  periods. 
This,  and  the  fact  that  any  lists  of  sitters  or  account  books 
that  he  may  have  kept  were  destroyed  or  disappeared  im- 
mediately after  his  death  make  the  dating  of  his  pictures; 
difficult. 

Broadly  speaking,  Raeburn's  career  as  a  painter  divides 
into  two  periods,  and  one  was  but  a  prelude,  and  that  a 
short  one,  to  the  other.  He  began  as  a  miniature  painter, 
but  was  not  twenty  when  he  commenced  the  series  of  life- 
size  portraits  on  which  his  reputation  rests.  Miniature- 
painting  in  England  was  at  about  its  highest  when  Raeburn 
began  to  paint,  but  his  miniatures  have  none  of  the  grace 
and  charm  which  are  the  most  distinctive  qualities  of  Cos- 


242  MRS.  SCOTT  MONCRIEFF 

way  or  Eldridge.  A  miniature  of  Deuchar,  the  seal  en- 
graver and  etcher,  said  to  be  the  second  portrait  done  by 
him  during  the  time  he  was  apprentice  to  Mr.  Gilliland,  an 
Edinburgh  goldsmith,  shows  that  he  was  a  realist  from  the 
first.  If  there  is  little  attempt  at  truth  of  tone  and  solidity 
of  modelling  and  the  local  colour  is  only  hinted  at,  there  is 
no  mistaking  the  carefulness  of  the  drawing  and  the  direct- 
ness of  the  characterization ;  and  in  the  typical  miniature 
of  Andrew  Wood,  surgeon,  painted  a  year  or  two  later,  the 
colour  has  become  more  definite,  the  tones  have  assumed  a 
greater  range,  and  the  reliefs  are  given  by  legitimate  model- 
ling. Moreover,  in  the  placing  and  lighting  of  the  heads 
one  may  note  a  similarity  to  his  earliest  oil-paintings. 

But  it  is  needless  to  linger  over  his  beginnings ;  Raeburn 
himself  would  scarcely  look  at  his  miniatures  after  he  had 
commenced  to  paint  life-size.  Yet  it  is  remarkable  that 
one  with  no  real  training  should  have  passed  almost  at  once 
from  miniatures  like  these  to  such  a  picture  as  the  George 
Chalmers  of  Pittencrieff.  Painted  in  1776,  when  the  artist 
was  no  more  than  twenty,  this  full  length  is  marked  by 
many  of  his  most  characteristic  traits.  It  has  much  of  his 
simplicity  of  arrangement  and  appreciation  of  character ; 
it  is  painted  with  a  fluent  brush  and  shows  that  simplifica- 
tion of  planes,  which  was  perhaps  the  basis  of  his  art. 
Indeed  in  this  and  other  portraits  painted  before  he  went 
abroad,  such  as  the  Dr.  Hutton,  or  the  Mrs.  Ferguson  and 
Children,  that  method  was  pushed  to  a  degree  which  he 
afterwards  modified  in  the  direction  of  completer  modelling. 
Thus  in  the  pictures  of  this  period  the  big  masses  are  un- 


MRS.  SCOTT    MONCRIEFF 


MRS.  SCOTT  MONCRIEFP  243 

broken  by  interior  modelling  and  tend  towards  emptiness, 
while  the  colour  is  unmodulated,  the  clothes  and  draperies 
being  rendered  by  simple  tints,  and  the  shadows  by  darker 
markings  of  the  same  colour  or  of  black.  His  style,  there- 
fore, although  it  developed  greatly  afterwards,  was  practic- 
ally formed  before  he  went  to  Rome  in  1785. 

Two  years  later  he  returned  to  Edinburgh,  and  before  the 
close  of  1787  he  painted  a  portrait  of  the  second  Lord 
President  Dundas,  which  shows  in  the  clearest  way  the  in- 
fluence of  his  Italian  sojourn.  At  first  sight  it  does  not 
suggest  Raeburn  at  all.  Yet,  if  the  arrangement  is  some- 
what reminiscent  of  Raphael's  Julius  //.,  and  the  handling 
is  completer  and  firmer  and  the  colour  richer  than  his  ear- 
lier work,  in  certain  qualities,  and  particularly  in  grasp  of 
character  and  simplicity  of  motive,  it  shows  no  marked 
divergence  from  such  a  portrait  as  that  of  Hutton  the 
geologist.  And  these  are  also  the  qualities  which  connect 
it  most  distinctly  with  his  matured  style.  The  impasto  is 
thicker  all  over  than  was  the  case  later,  but  the  chief  char- 
acteristic of  the  picture,  when  compared  with  the  ease  and 
freedom  of  more  typical  things,  is  the  carefulness  and  de- 
tail with  which  it  is  carried  out.  This  is  evident  in  the 
painting  of  the  face  and  the  drawing  of  the  hands,  but  is 
most  marked  in  the  rendering  of  accessories  and  costume. 
Much  the  same  care  was  expended  upon  a  portrait  of  the 
painter's  early  friend,  John  Clerk,  afterwards  Lord  Eldin 
and  other  pictures  of  this  time.  But  this  greater  precision 
was  only  a  passing  phase,  for  in  work  dating  only  a  little 
later  he  returns  to  something  more  like  his  earlier  style. 


244  MRS.  SCOTT  MONCRIEFF 

Many  of  the  pictures  painted  in  the  nineties  are  remark- 
able for  the  way  in  which  form  and  character  are  conveyed, 
as  in  Holbein's  work,  by  the  drawing  and  placing  of  the 
features  rather  than  by  modelling.  Of  this,  the  portrait  of 
Mrs.  McQueen  of  Braxfield,  wife  of  the  famous  Scots 
judge,  and  the  Mrs!  Newbigging  may  be  taken  as  examples. 
Yet  almost  simultaneously  he  was  producing  things  of 
which  the  outstanding  quality  is  tone,  or  light  and  shade, 
neither  of  which  had  been  notable  in  his  earlier  style.  A 
group  of  Sir  Ronald  and  Robert  Ferguson  (circa  1789)  at 
Raith  is  particularly  interesting  for  the  way  in  which  tone 
is  managed.  The  colour  is  restricted  to  a  harmony  of 
greys  and  browns,  and  the  modelling  is  expressed  very 
subtly  by  a  delicate  range  of  values.  On  the  other  hand 
the  William  Ferguson  of  Kilrie,  and  the  double  three-quarter 
length  of  Sir  John  and  Lady  Clerk,  both  of  which  were 
painted  about  1790,  are  exercises  in  light  and  shade  of  great 
refinement  and  beauty.  Raeburn's  usual  practice  was  to 
paint  in  a  diffused  but  strong  light,  which  mapping  out  the 
features  by  clear-cut  shadows,  marked  the  construction  and 
build  of  the  head  in  a  very  definite  way.  But  in  these  and 
a  few  other  portraits  painted  about  this  time,  the  faces  are 
largely  in  shadow,  and  the  shapes  are  very  fully  and  tenderly 
modelled. 

Most  of  the  work  of  this  period  tends  to  greyness  of 
colour  accentuated,  now  and  then,  by  passages  of  pure 
white,  bright  yellow  or  red ;  the  tone  is  usually  above 
medium  in  pitch ;  the  impasto  equal  and  rather  thin,  the 
twill  of  the  canvas  showing  clearly,  the  technique  more 


MRS.  SCOTT  MONCRIEFF  245 

marked  by  swiftness  and  flow  than  by  power  and  expressive- 
ness of  brushing.  These  qualities  are  more  conspicuous, 
however,  in  pictures  of  women,  for  many  of  his  male  por- 
traits are  exceedingly  powerful  in  handling  and  full  in 
modelling.  The  Dr.  Nathaniel  Spens  was  painted  about 
1791—2,  and  the  remarkable  strength  and  virility  there  re- 
vealed, associated  with  a  fresher  and  franker  use  of  colour, 
make  the  imposing  full-length  of  the  indefatigable  Sir  John 
Sinclair,  of  four  or  five  years  later,  a  picture,  which,  in  some 
respects  Raeburn  never  bettered.  With  these  may  be 
bracketed  the  splendid  rendering  of  Admiral  Lord  Duncan, 
commissioned  by  the  Incorporation  of  Shipmasters,  Leith, 
in  the  year  following  that  notable  victory  off  Camperdown 
which  earned  him  a  peerage  and  lasting  fame.  For  ease 
and  vigour  and  freshness  of  handling,  however,  nothing  by 
Raeburn  surpasses  the  group  of  Reginald  Macdonald  of 
Clanranald  and  bis  two  younger  brothers,  painted  just  at  the 
close  of  the  century. 

Raeburn's  work  had  thus  been  growing  steadily,  and 
with  no  marked  digressions  it  continued  to  grow.  Fresh- 
ness and  power  of  handling  dominated  his  technique  more 
and  more,  and  soon  the  simplicity  and  directness  of  his 
vision  were  relied  on  very  largely  for  pictorial  result.  The 
Macnab,  which  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence  thought  the  best 
representation  of  a  human  being  he  had  ever  seen,  the  Mrs. 
Stewart  of  Pkysgill,  and  the  Mrs.  Lee  Harvey  and  Daughter, 
the  last  one  of  the  latest  of  his  works  and  probably  never 
quite  finished,  show  that  he  still  retained  a  conventionally 
picturesque  setting  in  many  full-lengths  j  but  in  busts  and 


246  MRS.  SCOTT  MONCRIEFF 

three-quarter  lengths  one  notices  a  distinct  increase  in  the 
use  of  plain  backgrounds,  more  evident  perhaps  in  portraits 
of  women,  for  in  painting  men  he  had  always  been  inclined 
to  rely  upon  his  personal  impressions  of  actuality.  If  oc- 
casionally, as  in  the  charming  Mrs.  Gregory  (1796),  or  the 
Lady  Miller,  he  had  used  very  simple  arrangements,  they 
became  much  more  frequent  during  the  last  twenty  years 
of  his  career.  Comparison  of  the  plates  before  and  after 
that  of  the  Macdonald  boys  makes  this  evident  at  once. 
And,  with  the  complete  command  of  technique  which  he 
now  possessed,  his  appreciation  of  character  attained  fuller, 
more  beautiful,  and  more  convincing  expression.  His  por- 
traits of  both  men  and  women  conform  less  to  a  type  and 
are  more  fully  individualized  than  those  of  any  other  painter 
of  his  time  or  school.  Indeed,  few  painters  anywhere  have 
balanced  the  claims  of  pictorial  interest  and  characteriza- 
tion so  justly  as  he.  But,  as  insight  had  always  been 
strong  in  Raeburn's  art,  the  qualities  which  discriminate 
his  later  from  his  less  mature  work,  are  to  be  found  in  ex- 
pression rather  than  technique,  for  his  drawing  and  brush- 
work  were  practically  fully  developed  during  the  nineties. 
In  later  pictures,  however,  there  is  a  modification  in  his 
way  of  concentrating  attention.  Formerly  he  had  relied 
very  frequently  upon  a  shadow  cast  arbitrarily  over  the 
lower  part  of  the  picture,  as  in  the  Countess  of  Dumfries  and 
Lady  Elizabeth  Penelope  Cricbton  (1793),  or  the  Admiral 
Lord  Duncan  (1798)  ;  now,  while  not  discarding  that  device, 
he  combines  it  with  the  more  legitimate  one  of  subordi- 
nating the  surroundings  to  the  face.  Thus  in  portraits  like 


MRS.  SCOTT  MONCRIEFF  247 

that  of  Mrs.  Robert  Bell,  or  of  a  very  beautiful  unnamed 
woman,  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Schwabacker,  the  chief 
attention  is  given  to  the  head  and  bust,  the  draperies  and 
backgrounds  being  carried  only  as  far  as  necessary  to  sup- 
port the  face.  In  others  again,  as  in  the  best  known  and 
perhaps  the  loveliest  of  Raeburn's  works,  Mrs.  Scott  Mon- 
crieff,  the  draperies  are  cunningly  disposed  to  obtain  a  sim- 
ilar result.  And  to  the  freshness  and  trenchant  quality  of 
handling,  which  are  conspicuous  in  such  things  as  the 
Macdonalds,  or  the  Sir  John  Sinclair,  a  greater  variety  of 
impasto,  fuller  modelling,  deeper  tone,  and  richer,  if  more 
sombre,  colour  were  now  added.  This  increased  volume 
of  tone  and  colour,  combined  with  the  simple  yet  distin- 
guished masses,  which  are  the  most  marked  element  in  his 
design,  gives  his  more  characteristic  works  great  breadth 
and  dignity ;  and  if  in  some  of  the  pictures  of  these  later 
years  there  is  evidence  of  the  hurry  almost  inseparable  from 
a*  practice,  which,  in  his  own  words,  "  cannot  admit  of  en- 
largement," the  finest  of  them  are,  everything  considered, 
the  best  he  ever  painted.  The  shrewd  reading  of  char- 
acter, the  simplicity  of  pictorial  conception,  the  combined 
fullness  and  certainty  of  modelling,  the  resonance  of  tone 
and  the  sombre  richness  of  colour,  which  mark  Mrs. 
Cruikshank  (1805),  or  Lord  Newton  (between  1806  and 
lSll),Mrs.  James  Campbell,  or  Mrs.  Irvine  BosweI/(lS2O), 
James  Wardrop  of  Torbanbill,  or  Robert  Ferguson  of  Raith 
(1823),  to  name  no  more,  outweigh  and  outlast  the  more 
immediate  effectiveness  of  the  more  conventionally  pic- 
turesque pictures  of  his  earlier  or  even  of  this  later  time. 


248  MRS.  SCOTT  MONCRIEFP 

And  as  Raeburn  worked  with  undiminished  power  to  the 
very  end,  and  these  qualities  made  themselves  more  evident 
with  increasing  knowledge  and  power,  they  may  be  taken 
as  characteristic  of  his  gift,  as  an  index  of  his  personal 
views  and  preferences  in  art. 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  CHARLES  I. 

(FanDyck) 

H.  KNACKFUSS 

THE  various  groups  in  which  Van  Dyck  painted  the 
King's  children  are  among  the  most  charming  things 
which  the  master  produced  during  his  residence  in  England. 
Whereas  many  other  pictures  of  his  later  period  betray  the 
haste  with  which  they  were  painted,  the  children  are  always 
treated  by  the  artist  as  if  he  loved  his  work.  In  the  case 
of  the  portraits  of  the  children  the  date  can  be  more  nearly 
determined,  since  the  age  of  the  persons  represented  is  a 
certain  indication  to  go  by,  whereas,  in  the  case  of  the  like- 
ness of  the  King  and  Queen,  there  is  usually  nothing  to 
suggest  in  what  year  they  were  painted.  Of  these  groups 
of  children  there  are  quite  a  number.  The  gem  of  them 
all  is  in  the  Turin  gallery.  It  must  have  been  painted  in 
1635,  soon  after  the  master's  return  to  England.  It  shows 
the  three  eldest  children  of  the  King,  the  Prince  of  Wales 
(born  in  1630,  afterwards  Charles  II.),  the  Princess  Mary 
(born  in  1631,  afterwards  the  wife  of  William  II.,  Prince  of 
Orange),  and  the  Duke  of  York  (born  in  1633,  afterwards 
King  James  II.).  The  latter  can  just  stand  alone,  and 
even  the  Prince  of  Wales  still  wears  a  frock  and  a  little  cap. 
The  three  children  stand  side  by  side  without  any  closer 
connection ;  the  eldest,  who  already  displays  a  certain 


2$0  THE  CHILDREN  OP  CHARLES  I. 

gravity  of  demeanour,  strokes  the  head  of  a  long-haired  dog. 
The  charm  of  the  picture  lies  partly  in  the  delightful  roses 
in  bloom  in  the  background,  and  the  pretty  children  are 
like  flowers  themselves  in  their  gay  silk  dresses.  We  see 
the  sam^  three  children  about  a  year  older  in  the  exquisite 
picture  at  Dresden.  Here  the  three  brightly  coloured 
figures— the  Prince  of  Wales  already  dressed  as  a  boy- 
stand  in  front  of  a  quiet,  dark  background.  Two  pretty 
white  and  tan  spaniels  of  the  breed  which  were  such 
favourites  at  the  court  of  Charles  I.  that  they  still  go  by 
his  name,  sit  near  the  children  ;  in  the  place  where  the 
animals  are  introduced  they  are  of  importance  both  in  the 
combined  effect  of  the  colour  and  in  the  lineal  structure  of 
the  composition.  A  group  resembling  the  Dresden  picture, 
painted  a  little  later  again,  is  at  Windsor  Castle.  The  group 
is  larger  and  the  composition  more  elaborate  in  the  picture 
of  1637  at  Windsor,  of  which  the  Berlin  Gallery  contains 
a  repetition  painted  in  the  same  year.  In  addition  to  the 
three  elder  children,  the  little  Princesses  Elizabeth  and 
Anne  are  introduced.  A  glimpse  of  the  park  and  the  bright 
sky,  afforded  by  the  drawing  aside  of  a  dark-green  curtain, 
and  a  table  with  a  dull-red  cover  on  which  fruits  and  shin- 
ing vessels  are  laid,  bring  a  lively  play  of  colour  into  the 
background,  which  harmonizes  with  the  charm  of  the 
children's  gay  frocks  and  rosy  faces.  Princess  Mary  is 
dressed  all  in  white ;  the  Duke  of  York,  who  still  wears  a 
frock  and  cap,  has  a  little  jacket  of  red  shot  with  yellow 
over  his  white  frock ;  the  Prince  of  Wales,  who  stands  in 
the  middle  of  the  picture  as  the  most  important  figure, 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  CHARLES  I.  251 

wears  a  light-red  suit  with  slashed  sleeves  lined  with  white, 
and  white  shoes  with  red  rosettes;  his  left  hand  rests  on  the 
head  of  a  powerful  mastiff,  whose  yellow  coat  is  a  splendid 
complement  to  the  strongest  colours  in  the  picture,  the  red 
worn  by  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  a  light  blue,  which  is  the 
colour  of  the  frock  of  Princess  Elizabeth.  The  youngest 
princess,  supported  by  her  little  sister,  sits  in  her  baby- 
clothes  on  a  chair,  on  which  a  pale  red  cloth  lies  across  a 
dark  velvet  cushion ;  in  front  of  the  two  little  ones  lies  a 
tiny  white  and  tan  spaniel. 

We  can  form  some  idea  of  the  occupation  given  Van 
Dyck  by  the  King,  when  we  learn  that  an  extant  account, 
settled  by  order  of  Charles  I.  in  1638,  after  he  had  dis- 
counted considerably  some  of  the  prices  set  by  the  artist  on 
his  work,  enumerates  twenty-three  pictures  then  awaiting 
payment,  which  included  twelve  portraits  of  the  Queen 
and  five  of  the  King.  And,  besides  these,  Van  Dyck 
painted  an  incredibly  large  number  of  portraits  of  other 
people.  He  was  overloaded  with  commissions  from  the 
whole  aristocracy  of  the  English  court,  and  he  managed  to 
satisfy  all  his  patrons  with  masterly  pictures. 


JANE  SEYMOUR 

(Holbein) 

ALFRED  WOLTMANN 

PREDILECTION  for  portraiture  is  perhaps  a  narrow- 
ness  in  the  English  taste  for  art,  but  it  has  also  its 
foundation  in  the  character  of  the  nation.  It  corresponds 
with  that  estimation  of  the  personal  worth  of  a  man,  with 
that  full  appreciation  of  individual  independence,  which 
forms  such  an  important  element  in  the  English  national 
character.  Though  primarily  no  artistic  grounds  may  have 
produced  this  estimation  of  portrait-painting,  still  we  may 
assert  that  in  Holbein's  time,  artistic  grounds  were  also  ex- 
isting. What  must  have  produced  the  greatest  impression 
upon  a  nation  like  the  English,  which  was  at  that  time  en- 
tirely habituated  to  the  artistic  style  of  the  Middle  Ages,  at 
the  sight  of  works  of  art  imbued  with  the  modern  spirit  ? 
Naturally  that  which  the  art  of  the  Middle  Ages  most 
lacked :  not  the  expression  of  beautiful  feelings  and  pro- 
found thoughts,  not  the  display  of  a  rich  imagination,  but 
the  capability  of  the  artist  to  see  a  definite  natural  object 
exactly  and  distinctly  as  it  is,  and  to  hold  such  a  sway  over 
the  artistic  power  that  he  can  depict  everything  as  he  sees 
it.  History  teaches  us  that  portraiture  is  ever  that  branch  of 
art  which  proves  most  clearly  and  surely  how  an  artist  or 
a  whole  epoch  is  master  of  the  means  of  representation. 


JANE  SEYMOUR 


JANE  SEYMOUR  253 

From  this  point  of  view,  therefore,  we  are  well  justified 
in  lamenting  that  Holbein  with  all  the  wealth  and  versatility 
of  his  mind  should  have  been  limited  to  this  one  branch ;  if, 
however,  we  were  to  proceed  a  step  further  and  pity  him 
on  this  account,  we  should  be  taking  a  wrong  view  of  the 
matter.  In  a  material  point  of  view,  he  undoubtedly  found 
most  advantage  in  portrait-painting.  In  Germany  also,  it 
gained  the  highest  price,  and  Holbein  would  assuredly  have 
pursued  it  for  preference,  had  there  only  been  more  people, 
who  in  these  years  of  scarcity  had  sufficient  surplus-money 
to  admit  of  their  being  painted  by  him. 

We  have  also  no  reason  to  suppose  that  this  sphere  of 
work  was  unsatisfactory  to  Holbein's  taste.  The  most 
credible  authorities,  his  works  themselves,  prove  the  con- 
trary. Even  in  his  youth,  Holbein  had  painted  portraits, 
which  can  rank  with  the  best  which  German  portrait-paint- 
ing has  produced.  We  have  only  to  recall  to  mind  the 
portrait  of  Amerbach.  Since,  however,  he  had  come  to 
England,  he  made  continual  progress,  and  the  works  which 
he  executed  in  the  King's  service  far  surpass  all  his  former 
productions.  Goethe's  maxim  :  "  Erst  zn's  We'ite,  dann  zu 
Scbranken  "  ("  First  extension,  afterwards  limits  "),  we  see 
here  fulfilled.  Holbein  had  reached  the  boldest  heights  of 
religious,  ideal,  and  historical  painting.  Now,  at  the 
period  of  his  utmost  maturity,  he  contented  himself  with 
the  narrow  sphere  of  portraiture,  but  in  this  limitation  he 
exhibited  all  that  he  possessed,  not  merely  a  masterly  power 
in  technical  matters  and  the  perfect  cultivation  of  taste  in 
the  spirit  of  the  Renaissance,  but  also  the  height  of  his  in- 


254  JANE  SEYMOUR 

tellectual  conception  and  his  grand  historical  style.  Por- 
traiture is  the  path  to  true  historical  painting  in  the  modern 
sense,  resting  as  it  does  essentially  on  psychological  con- 
ception and  only  able  to  depict  a  dramatic  incident,  when  it 
represents  a  definite  historical  personage  in  his  character, 
passions,  and  will,  and  makes  him  the  vehicle  of  the  action. 
In  Holbein's  portraits  we  learn  to  feel  this,  for  these  have 
grown,  so  to  speak,  as  regards  ourselves  into  historical  pic- 
tures. Holbein  conceived  the  persons  whom  he  painted, 
not  in  any  special  situation  or  feeling,  but  in  the  calm  con- 
tinuance and  even  balance  of  their  nature,  but  he  reveals 
this  nature  to  us  so  significantly  that  we  feel  as  if  we  could 
see  the  men  whose  names  are  recorded  in  history,  in  the 
moments  in  which  they  most  fully  established  their  person- 
ality ;  in  which  they  conceived  their  decided  resolutions  and 
accomplished  their  great  deeds.  He  imbues  the  portrait 
"  so  thoroughly  with  that  marrow  of  the  historical  spirit, 
which  at  once  recalls  the  individual  to  life,  that  in  these 
works  history  itself  breathes  and  lives,  and  the  portrait  be- 
fore us  opens  the  speaking  mouth  with  its  eloquent  lips,  and 
gathers  round  us  its  departed  contemporaries,  and,  as  in  the 
drama,  renews  the  play  whose  curtain  long  ago  has  fallen." 
There  is  a  painting  of  Queen  Jane  Seymour,  a  half- 
length  figure  and  nearly  life-size,  in  the  Belvedere  at  Vienna. 
It  accords  in  the  conception  and  bearing  with  the  Whitehall 
painting,  and  also  with  a  splendid  sketch  in  the  Windsor 
Collection,  and  it  belongs  to  the  most  masterly  works 
which  we  possess  of  Holbein's  English  period.  It  is  evi- 
dently the  same  picture  as  that  which  Carel  van  Mander 


JANE  SEYMOUR  255 

describes  in  the  following  manner : — "  There  was  at  Am- 
sterdam in  the  Warmoesstraat  (Vegetable  Street),  a  portrait 
of  a  Queen  of  England,  admirably  executed,  and  very  pretty 
and  nice ;  she  was  attired  in  silver  brocade,  which  appears 
to  be  genuine  silver  with  some  admixture,  and  it  was  de- 
picted so  transparently,  curiously  and  exquisitely,  that  a 
white  foil  seemed  to  lie  beneath." 

The  effect  produced  by  the  Viennese  picture  accords  per- 
fectly with  this  description.  It  shows  at  the  same  time, 
that  in  the  technical  execution  and  in  the  background  tint 
which  he  chose,  Holbein  ever  accommodated  himself  to  the 
subject  he  was  depicting,  and  that  a  colder  or  warmer  pro- 
portion of  light  and  shade  did  not  merely  belong  to  certain 
periods  of  his  artistic  progress,  but  that  he  at  the  same  time, 
allowed  sometimes  the  one,  and  sometimes  the  other  to 
prevail,  according  to  the  personage  whom  he  was  delineat- 
ing- 

Jane  Seymour  was  famed  for  her  pure  fairness,  and 
therefore  this  cold  and  delicate  tint  with  its  faint  grey 
shadows  was  suited  for  her  portrait,  and  Holbein  has  pro- 
duced nothing  more  beautiful.  She  appears  in  the  most 
splendid  costume,  an  under-garment  of  silver  brocade,  over 
which  she  wears  a  dress  of  purple  velvet.  Wherever  it  was 
possible,  rich  gold  ornament  was  introduced ;  her  dress  and 
her  cap  of  the  well-known  angular  form  were  studded  with 
pearls,  and  a  chain  of  pearls  was  hung  round  her  neck,  from 
which  was  suspended  a  rich  jewelled  ornament  forming  the 
initials  VBS.  The  whole  was  executed  in  miniature-like 
perfection  5  and  in  spite  of  this  splendour,  this  glittering 


256  JANE  SEYMOUR 

profusion,  the  countenance  of  the  Queen  outshone  all  the 
rest  with  its  wonderfully  delicate  and  clear  tint.  How  soft 
and  fine  are  the  hands  quietly  resting  in  each  other,  and 
emerging  from  cuffs  of  exquisitely  finished  Spanish  work  ! 
How  beautiful  is  the  form  of  the  face,  how  delicate  is  the 
effect  of  the  grey  shadows,  especially  on  the  chin !  The 
small  shade  thrown  by  one  of  the  points  of  her  cap  is  very 
charming.  The  countenance  is  one  of  regular  beauty  with 
delicate  fair  eyebrows ;  the  expression  of  the  closely  com- 
pressed lips  is  extraordinarily  sweet.  Her  eyes  do  not  seek 
the  spectator,  but  look  calmly  forth,  and  the  serene  trans- 
parency of  her  brow  has  quite  a  peculiar  effect.  It  re- 
minds us  of  Ronsard's  pretty  poem  to  Francois  Clouet, 
which  begins : 

"  Pein  moy,  Janet,  pein  moy,  je  tc  supplie, 
Sur  ce  tableau  les  beautez  de  m*  amie." 

There  we  read  respecting  the  main  requisites  of  female 
beauty : 

"  Que  son  beau  front  ne  soit  entre  fendu, 
De  nul  sillon  en  profond  estendu  : 
Mais  qu  'il  soit  tel  qu'  est  1'eau  de  la  marine 
Quand  tant  soit  peu  le  vent  ne  la  mutine." 

Jane  Seymour  is  delicacy  itself;  her  appearance  is  royal 
and  noble,  and  is  yet  full  of  genuine  womanly  gentleness 
and  modesty.  This  portrait  proves  the  truth  of  the  de- 
scription given  of  her  by  Sir  John  Russell,  when  he  had 
observed  her  in  church.  The  richer  Queen  Jane  was  in 


JANE  SEYMOUR  257 

her  attire  the  more  beautiful  did  she  appear,  while  the  con- 
trary was  the  case  with  Anne  Boleyn.  She  merits  certainly 
all  the  favour  she  has  experienced ;  she  is  the  most  modest, 
fair  and  gentle  of  all  the  ladies  whom  the  King  has  had. 
And  thus  the  people  also  extolled  her  beauty,  when  in  De- 
cember, 1536,  she  passed  through  London  on  horseback  by 
the  side  of  her  noble  consort,  the  ice  on  the  Thames  having 
made  the  passage  by  water  impossible.  All  parties  paid  her 
equal  honour,  but  she  never  became  distinguished  in  his- 
tory, and  this  is  the  best  evidence  in  her  favour.  In  a 
tragic  moment  the  King  had  demanded  her  hand,  and  un- 
expectedly she  had  become  his  wife,  but  from  the  excellence 
of  her  character  she  won  his  esteem,  and  beyond  this,  an 
affection  as  profound  as  Henry  was  capable  of  feeling.  At 
his  death  he  wished  to  be  placed  by  her  side. 


HIERONYMUS  HOLZSCHUHER 

(Albrecbt  Durer) 

GUSTAVE  GRUYER 

BORN  in  Nuremberg  the  2ist  of  May,  1471,  and  dy- 
ing in  the  same  city  the  6th  of  April,  1528,  Albrecht 
Durer  was  at  the  apogee  of  his  talent  and  nearly  at  the  end 
of  his  life  when  he  painted  the  portrait  of  Hieronymus 
Holzschuher  (1526).  Inspired  by  a  model  of  a  noble  and 
pleasing  appearance,  and  stimulated  by  a  friendship  of  long 
standing,  he  surpassed  himself  in  the  execution  of  this  por- 
trait, the  most  beautiful  and  the  most  vital  of  all  those  that 
he  has  signed.  To  pass  by  such  a  work  with  indifference 
is  impossible  :  it  strikes  those  ignorant  of  art  as  forcibly  as 
it  does  the  connoisseurs  ;  it  has  an  irresistible  attraction  and 
it  leaves  an  impression  in  the  mind  that  one  likes  to  have 
repeated. 

Hieronymus  Holzschuher  is  represented  bust  length  of 
life-size,  in  a  robe  of  black  damask  trimmed  with  fur. 
The  body  is  slightly  turned  to  the  left,  but  the  glance  is 
directed  obliquely  towards  the  right.  The  clear  and  bril- 
liant eyes  shadowed  by  brows  that  indicate  a  very  strong 
will  have  a  very  unusual  vivacity  ;  they  allow  us  to  perceive 
a  very  keen  intelligence,  and  a  grave,  loyal  and  sincere  soul. 
The  very  well  formed  head  is  covered  with  abundant  hair 
of  silvery  grey  which  falls  in  curls  upon  the  collar  of  the 


H.    HOLZSCHUHER 


HIERONYMUS  HOLZSCHUHER  259 

garment  while  a  few  wisps  partly  hide  the  strongly  de- 
veloped forehead.  The  long  beard,  which  is  also  almost 
white,  brings  out  the  rosy  tones  of  the  skin.  The  face 
stands  out  from  a  very  luminous  background  of  light  green. 
To  the  left,  above, you  read  :  "Hieronims  Holzschuer,Anno 
Doni  1526.  Etatis,  sue.  57."  On  the  background  at  the 
right  you  see  Diirer's  monogram.  Notwithstanding  his  age, 
Holzschuher  is  full  of  vigour ;  yet  only  a  few  years  were 
between  him  and  his  end.  He  died  on  the  Qth  of  May, 
1529,  three  years  after  having  posed  for  Diirer,  and  a  year 
after  the  great  artist  had  departed  this  life. 

The  execution  of  the  portrait  which  occupies  our  atten- 
tion, denotes  the  most  minute  care.  You  cannot  too  much 
admire  the  accuracy  and  precision  jof  the  contours,  the 
delicacy  of  the  modelling  and  the  general  harmony  of  the 
colours.  If  the  face  and  figure  as  a  whole  present  a  strik- 
ing veracity,  the  slightest  details  are  prodigies  of  patience 
and  skill.  What  minute  and  perfect  work  there  is  in  the 
soft  hair,  in  the  light  and  tangled  beard,  and  also  in  the  fur ! 
In  considering  these  particulars  in  Holzschuher's  portrait, 
we  are  involuntarily  reminded  of  a  drawing,  in  the  Alber- 
tine  collection  at  Vienna,  in  which  Diirer  reproduced  in 
1521  during  a  stay  in  Antwerp,  the  features  of  an  old  man 
of  ninety-three  years.  The  long  wavy  beard  of  this  old 
man  is  rendered  with  the  same  fastidious  perfection  and  in- 
deed almost  approaches  caligraphy.  It  would  seem  that  in 
executing  these  portraits  Diirer  frequently  remembered  his 
habits  of  an  engraver.  Holbein  the  younger  (1497-1543), 
who,  excepting  Diirer,  was  the  greatest  German  painter, 


260  HIERONYMUS  HOLZSCHUHER 

had  the  opposite  idea  regarding  his  portraits ;  entirely  con- 
cerned with  the  general  effect,  he  never  allowed  himself  to 
be  distracted  or  absorbed  by  the  details ;  and  therefore  pro- 
duced works  by  means  of  a  less  realistic  and  more  refined 
art. 

Albrecht  Durer,  as  we  have  said,  had  personal  relations 
with  Hieronymus  Holzschuher.  During  his  trip  through 
the  Low  Countries,  on  the  5th  of  May,  1521,  he  bought 
an  enormous  drinking-horn  as  a  present  for  him.  This 
fact  is  mentioned  in  his  Journal^  which  still  exists  and  in 
which  he  inscribed  not  only  his  impressions,  but  notes  of 
all  kinds,  and  his  daily  expenses. 

The  illustrious  painter  of  Nuremberg  also  counted  ad- 
mirers among  other  members  of  the  Holzschuher  family. 
One  of  them  ordered  a  picture  from  him  for  the  chapel  of 
Saint  Maurice  in  the  church  of  Saint  Sebald.  This  pic- 
ture represents  the  dead  Christ  mourned  by  saintly  women 
and  his  disciples.  It  now  belongs  to  the  Museum  in 
Nuremberg.  Probably  it  was  Sigismund  Holzschuher  that 
gave  Durer  this  order,  for  the  number  of  his  sons  and 
daughters  corresponds  to  the  children  that  surround  the 
donor  Sigismund  who  died  in  1499. 

We  have  very  little  information  regarding  Hieronymus 
Holzschuher.  He  was  born  in  1469,  two  years  before 
Durer,  of  Patrician  family  of  Nuremberg  whose  origin 
dates  from  1130.  But  it  was  owing  to  his  merits  far  more 
than  to  his  birth  that  he  owed  the  offices  with  which  he 
was  honoured.  In  1499,  he  became  a  member  of  the 
council  charged  with  the  municipal  administration.  In 


HIERONYMUS  HOLZSCHUHER  261 

1500,  he  was  placed  among  the  most  recently  nominated 
burgomasters;  and  in  1509  among  the  oldest  burgomasters. 
Finally,  from  1514,  he  was  one  of  the  septemvirs.  In 
1498,  he  married  Dorothea,  daughter  of  the  physician 
Hieronymus  Miinzer.  Of  this  union,  three  sons  were 
born.  The  eldest  represented  his  fellow  citizens  at  the 
Diets  of  Worms,  Ratisbon  and  Augsburg,  and  on  Septem- 
ber 28,  1547,  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  confirmed  his  title 
of  nobility. 

There  is  a  medal  in  existence  representing  Hieronymus 
Holzschuher,  a  medal  that  bears  the  date  of  1529,  the 
year  of  his  death.  Holzschuher  is  seen  here  in  profile 
turned  to  the  right.  This  was  inspired  by  Diirer's  portrait 
and  only  differs  slightly  from  it.  Around  the  effigy  you 
read  the  following  inscription  :  u  Holzschuher  senior  tetatis 
suae  LX"  On  the  reverse,  the  Holzschuher  arms  are  ac- 
companied by  the  following  words  :  u  Munlficentia  amicos, 
patientia  inimicos  vtnce.  MDXXIX" 

In  the  Museum  at  Gotha,  a  copy  of  Holzschuher' s  por- 
trait by  Diirer,  the  same  size  as  the  original,  is  to  be  found. 
It  was  executed  in  1578  by  Hans  Hoffmann  of  Nuremberg, 
whose  monogram  it  bears.  Hans  Hoffmann  endeavoured 
to  imitate  Diirer,  and  was  particularly  fond  of  copying  his 
pictures.  He  was  one  of  the  court  painters  at  Vienna  un- 
der the  Emperor  Rudolph  II.,  and  he  died  either  in  1592  or 
1600. 

Until  Sandrart's  time  Hieronymus  Holzschuher's  por- 
trait, preserved  by  the  Holzschuher  family,  was  almost  un- 
known to  the  public.  Sandrart  was  the  first  to  mention  it. 


262  HIERONYMUS  HOLZSCHUHER 

In  his  Teutscbe  Academic,  written  in  1675,  he  first  speaks 
of  Durer's  portrait  painted  by  himself  in  1500  and  now  ex- 
hibited in  the  Town-Hall  of  Nuremberg,  and  then  he 
adds :  "  They  also  show  in  that  town  a  very  much 
admired  portrait  of  Jerome  Holzschuher,  painted  on  wood. 
In  1651,  I  offered  a  large  sum  of  money  for  it  on  the  part 
of  a  very  powerful  sovereign,1  but  they  would  not  sell  it  at 
any  price."  After  Sandrart's  time  silence  again  hovers 
around  Durer's  masterpiece.  It  only  begins  to  attract  at- 
tention again  at  the  beginning  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
In  1816,  a  presumptuous  artist  dared  to  substitute  for  the 
light  green  background  one  of  purplish  brown  which  hid 
the  inscriptions  inserted  in  the  picture  almost  entirely,  and 
perfectly  self-satisfied  he  wrote  on  it  :  "John  Laurence 
Rotermundt  Bambergensis  restauravit."  It  was  in  this  con- 
dition when  Mr.  Edward  Holzschuher,  the  last  representa- 
tive of  the  Holzschuher  family,  lent  Durer's  picture  to  the 
German  Museum.  It  was  purchased  in  1884  by  the  Ber- 
lin Museum  from  which  we  need  not  fear  that  it  will  ever 
be  removed. 

Thanks  to  Mr.  A.  Hauser  of  Munich,  who  proceeded 
with  as  much  care  as  skill,  the  background  the  Rotermundt 
had  painted  was  removed  and  the  original  background  cor- 
rectly restored  and  once  more  contributes  to  the  harmoniza- 
tion of  the  tones.  This  admirable  portrait,  so  well  pre- 
served, still  remains  in  its  original  frame,  the  movable  shut- 
ter of  which,  still  in  existence,  has  been  replaced  by  a  glass ; 
on  the  shutter  the  united  arms  of  the  Holzschuher  and 

1 M.  Julius  Meyer  thinks  this  was  Maximilian  I.,  Elector  of  Bavaria. 


HIERONYMUS  HOLZSCHUHER  263 

Munzer  families  are  painted  in  the  centre  of  a  crown,  ac- 
companied by  the  date  MDXXVI. 

After  having  executed  this  portrait  of  Holzschuher, 
Diirer  took  up  his  brushes  only  once  more, — to  paint  the 
Four  Apostles,  now  in  the  Pinakothek  of  Munich,  which 
he  offered  to  his  native  town  as  a  u  testimony  of  his  patriotic 
and  religious  sentiments." 


BEATA  BEATRIX 

(Rossetti) 

F.  G.  STEPHENS 

THE  picture  now  before  us  is  one  of  the  masterpieces 
of  the  leading  member  of  the  Pre-Raphaelite  Brother- 
hood, and  was  produced  in  the  prime  of  his  powers,  imagina- 
tive as  well  as  technical.  It  is  among  the  few  examples  of 
Rossetti's  art  fit  to  be  compared  with  the  Beloved^  that  gem  of 
Mr.  George  Rae's  collection,  and  in  some  respects  it  is 
even  more  distinctly  than  that  superb  achievement  a  full 
and  true  reflection  of  the  artist's  idiosyncrasy  of  the  higher 
order.  The  mysticism  and  mystery  of  Beata  Beatrix  are 
due  to  that  which  was,  so  to  say,  the  innermost  Rossetti,  or 
Rossetti  of  Rossetti.  The  spirit  of  Dante  never  found  in 
art  or  otherwise  an  apter  or  more  subtle  expression  than 
this  wonderful  vision  of  that  border-realm  which  lies  be- 
tween life  and  death. 

If  the  subject  itself  taxed  the  painter  and  his  art,  my 
humble  office  of  endeavouring  to  illustrate  it  in  words  is, 
whether  as  concerns  the  means  at  hand  or  the  fitness  of 
the  writer,  commensurately  unpromising  and  difficult.  In 
such  a  case  the  critic  is  even  more  unfavourably  placed 
than  the  engraver,  who,  while  his  original  possesses  the 
charm  of  colour,  must  needs  dispense  with  that  magical 
element,  although,  as  in  this  instance,  above  most  others, 


BEATA  BEATRIX 


BEATA  BEATRIX  265 

the  sentiment  of  the  picture  finds  utterance  in  that  which 
may  be  called  the  poetry  of  its  colouration,  and  the  chro- 
matic scheme  of  the  work  is  not  only  in  harmony  with  the 
pathos  of  the  whole,  but  an  essential  portion  of  the  design, 
and,  as  such,  was  with  the  utmost  solicitude  and  insight 
developed  by  the  poet-painter. 

As  described  in  the  Vita  Nuova^  that  most  transcendental 
of  the  poet's  creations,  the  Beatrice  of  Dante's  imagina- 
tion sits  in  a  balcony  of  her  father's  palace  in  Florence. 
We  are  in  the  chamber  from  which  it  opens,  and  the 
beautiful  and  spiritual  damsel's  form  is  half  lost  against 
the  outer  light,  half  merged  in  the  inner  shadows  of  the 
place.  She  is  herself  a  vision,  while — her  corporeal  eyes 
losing  power  of  outward  speculation — the  heavenly  visions 
of  the  New  Life  are  revealed  to  the  eyes  of  her  spirit. 
The  open  window  gives  a  view  of  the  Arno,  its  bridge  and 
the  towers  and  palaces  of  that  city  in  which  Dante  and 
Beatrice  spent  their  lives  side  by  side,  so  to  say,  until  that 
fatal  ninth  of  June,  1290,  when  she  died,  and,  as  the  poet 
told  us,  u  the  whole  city  came  to  be,  as  it  were,  widowed 
and  despoiled  of  all  dignity  "  ;  or,  as  the  appropriate  motto 
on  the  frame  in  the  National  Gallery  has  it,  being  Dante's 
own  verse,  uttered  when  her  death  was  announced  to  him, 
and  borrowed  from  Jeremiah  :  "  ^uomodo  sedet  sola  chitas"  l 

The  outer  light  which  is  that  of  evening  when  dun  vapours 
prevail,  falls  in  a  still  brilliant  though  subdued  flood  upon 

1  Or  at  length  :— 

«  How  doth  the  city  sit  solitary,  that  was  full  of  people ! 
How  is  she  become  as  a  widow,  she  that  was  great  among  the  nations ! " 

— Lamentations t  I.,  j. 


266  BEATA  BEATRIX 

the  surface  of  the  river,  and  gives  to  it  a  lustre  at  once 
warm  and  silvery,  dashed  by  reflections,  whether  dim  or 
luminous,  of  the  bridge  and  other  buildings  on  the  banks, 
and  thrown  back  towards  us.  Opposed  to  this  sheen  the 
head  of  Beatrix  is  so  placed  that  the  light  shines  among 
the  outer  threads  of  her  dark  auburn  hair,  and  thus  pro- 
duces the  effect  of  a  halo,  radiant  against  the  vapours  of  the 
twilight  distance  and  diffused  in  the  nearer  space,  while  the 
face  itself  is,  to  our  sight,  merged  in  the  dimness  caused 
by  our  looking  at  the  splendour  of  the  river.  Accordingly, 
the  figure  appears  partly  outlined  against  the  lustre,  partly 
lost  in  the  half-gloom  of  the  chamber.  It  is  thus  visible 
in  what  may  be  called  a  twilight  of  brilliance  and  a  twilight 
of  shadow.  This  contrasting  harmony  has  been,  with 
ineffable  subtlety  and  care,  developed  by  the  painter,  and  it 
enhances  the  spiritual  abstruseness  of  his  design.  The 
true  inspiration  of  his  theme  required  that  the  figure  of 
Beatrix,  being  an  inmate  of  that  border-realm  which  divides 
life  from  death,  should  appear  occult,  and  with  nothing 
defined — neither  form,  nor  colour,  nor  substance,  nor 
shadow,  nor  light  direct,  nor  positive  elements  of  any  sort 
to  affirm  that  she  has  passed  the  bourn  from  which  no 
traveller  returns  or  lingers  in  our  midst. 

Her  form  is  merged,  not  lost  in  that  shadowy  space 
which,  in  Butler's  noble  phrase,  is  "  of  brightness  made." 
Thus  Rossetti  happily  showed  that  his  subject  was  a 
mystery,  yet  not  without  life  of  this  world,  nor  all  unreal. 
A  woman  of  exceeding  beauty  and  holiness,  his  Beatrix  is 
in  a  rapture  of  approaching  death,  absorbed  in  a  painless 


BEATA  BEATRIX  267 

ecstasy,  having  knowledge  of  the  world  to  come  ere  her 
spirit  quits  its  mortal  house,  so  that  while  her  features 
attest  mortality,  the  fair  mansion  is  not  void  of  life. 
Rossetti  made  her  drooping  eyelids  veil  unseeing  eyes, 
while  her  parted  lips  and  slowly-lifted  nostrils  bespeak  a 
failing  vitality.  Thus  his  intention  is  manifest,  while  his 
genius  leads  us  into  that  recondite  region  where  art  passes 
beyond  the  reach  of  words  and  ordered  phrases ;  touches, 
in  truth,  upon  the  very  boundary  of  pictorial  representation 
and  factful  resemblance ;  and  affirms  its  power  to  deal  with 
the  subtlest  purposes  and  visions  so  abstruse  that  poets, 
even  while  addressing  poets,  rarely  describe  them,  and 
painters,  although  appealing  to  painters  as  poetical  as  them- 
selves have  still  more  rarely  ventured  to  deal  with  them. 
That  this  is  an  allegory  expressing  itself  without  those 
conventions  which  are  the  currency  of  symbolical  language, 
and  thus  shows  Rossetti  venturing  in  a  new  poetic  sphere, 
is  a  new  cause  for  our  admiration. 

As  to  the  picture  and  its  spectators,  it  is  obvious  that  we 
remain  on  the  mundane  side  of  things,  while  Beatrix  in  a 
swoon  passes  into  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death,  and 
the  Florence  Rossetti  painted  is  the  Heavenly  City  of  the 
future.  Rapt  thus,  her  features  look  pale  in  the  half 
gloom,  half  light,  and  her  hands,  which  erst  clasped  each 
other  in  her  lap,  have  fallen  apart  to  lie  supine  because  their 
task  is  almost  done,  and  this  is  celestial  light  which  glances 
on  them.  A  dove,  a  heavenly  messenger,  of  deep  rose- 
coloured  and  glowing  plumage,  and,  like  the  bird  of  the 
Annunciation,  crowned  with  an  aureole,  poises  on  down- 


268  BEATA  BEATRIX 

ward  wings  at  her  knee  and  bears  to  Beatrix's  hands  a 
white  poppy,  /.  *.,  the  mystical  flower  in  which  Rossetti 
meant  to  combine  the  emblems  of  death  and  chastity.  He 
gave  to  the  flower  a  dark  heart  to  indicate  death ful  mystery, 
and  to  its  pallid  leaves  imparted  that  pure  whiteness  which 
expresses  the  stainless  life  of  the  lady  who,  although  not 
dying,  is  about  to  die. 

Her  face  is  in  some  respects  a  likeness  of  the  painter's 
wife,  who  passed  away  some  years  before  he  designed  this 
.picture.  It  is  obviously,  however,  not  intended  as  a  por- 
trait of  that  lady,  but  it  may  well  be  called  a  spiritual 
translation,  inspiring  features  which  had  but  a  general  re- 
semblance to  those  of  the  Eeata  Beatrix  who  is  before  us. 
Her  dress  consists  of  a  green  outer  garment,  loosely  fitting 
above  a  closer  under-robe  of  purple,  the  colours  of  hope 
and  sorrow  as  well  as  of  life  and  death.  They  likewise 
resemble  the  red  and  green,  or  red  and  blue  of  the  Virgin, 
symbolical  hues,  the  significance  of  which  all  the  world  has 
recognized.  The  sundial  on  the  parapet  of  the  balcony 
behind  the  figure,  from  whose  gnomon  the  celestial  bright- 
ness projects  a  shadow,  indicates  upon  the  numeral  of  the 
hour  (the  mystical  nine  the  poet  has  told  us  of)  that  the 
time  of  Beatrix  has  nearly,  if  not  quite,  come.  In  the  half- 
gloom  behind  the  swooning  lady  we  see  Dante,  with  book 
in  hand  and  in  "  scholarly  gown,"  exactly  as  when  he  met 
the  living  Beatrix  in  the  porch  of  that  famous  church  of 
Florence  which  he  could  never  afterwards  forget.  Exactly 
as  the  living  poet  turned  to  gaze  on  his  mistress  as  she 
passed  on  her  way,  so  he  now  turns  and  as  attentively  re- 


BEATA  BEATRIX  269 

gards  the  figure  of  radiant  Love,  the  ideal  Eros  of  his  ex- 
alted vision,  who,  holding  in  one  hand  a  flaming  heart, 
passes  on  the  other  side  of  the  picture  heavenwards,  and 
seems  to  sign  to  Dante  that  he  should  follow  in  that  path. 
This  vermilion-clad  genius  is,  of  course,  the  eidolon,  or  spir- 
itual Beatrix,  the  celestial  Love  whose  earthly  image  was 
the  Beatrix  the  poet  made  immortal  in  immortal  verse,  and 
met  and  knew — it  matters  not  whether  much  or  little — in 
Florence  street  upon  that  unforgotten  day  the  very  record 
of  which  is  to  Dante's  lovers  as  the  echo  of  a  rapturous 
sigh. 

Rossetti,  writing  to  a  friend,  thus  describes  his  intention 
in  this  picture  : — "  It  illustrates  the  Vita  Nuova,  embody- 
ing symbolically  the  death  of  Beatrice  as  treated  in  that 
work.  The  picture  is  not  intended  at  all  to  represent 
death,  but  to  render  it  under  the  semblance  of  a  trance,  in 
which  Beatrice  seated  in  a  balcony  overlooking  the  city,  is 
suddenly  rapt  from  earth  to  heaven.  You  will  remember 
how  Dante  dwells  upon  the  desolation  of  the  city  in  con- 
nection with  the  incidents  of  her  death,  and  for  this  reason 
I  have  introduced  it  as  my  background,  and  made  the 
figures  of  Dante  and  Love  passing  through  the  streets,  and 
gazing  ominously  on  one  another,  conscious  of  the  event ; 
while  the  bird,  messenger  of  death,  drops  the  poppy  be- 
tween the  hands  of  Beatrice.  She,  through  shut  lids,  as 
expressed  in  the  last  words  of  the  Vita  Nouva, — "  ghiella 
beat  a  Beatrice  che  gloriosamente  mira  nella  faccia  di  colui  qui  est 
per  omnia  s&cula  benedictus"  . 

Nearly  all  the  frames  of  Rossetti's  pictures  were  designed 


BEATA  BEATRIX 

by  himself,  not  only  for  beauty's  sake,  but  to  convey  spirit- 
ual allusions  to  the  subjects  they  enclosed.  In  this  case  he 
spent  extraordinary  pains  on  the  design,  which  includes, 
below  the  painting,  the  motto,  "  ^uomodo  sedet  sola  civitas" 
as  before  quoted,  and  the  fatal  date,  "June  9, 1290."  On 
each  side  of  the  frame  is  an  emblematic  circle  enclosing 
celestial  spaces  charged  with  clouds,  stars,  and  the  greater 
luminaries,  and  severally  appropriate  to  the  theme  of  the 
picture. 

This  important  work  was  begun  in  1863,  and  carried  on 
at  intervals  for  more  than  two  years.  In  August,  1866,  it 
was,  as  the  artist's  brother  has  told  us,  sold  to  the  Hon. 
William  Cowper-Temple,  afterwards  Lord  Mount-Temple. 
There  are,  at  least,  besides  a  drawing  in  crayons,  two  ver- 
sions, not  exactly  replicas  of  it ;  but  neither  of  them  is  so 
fine  as  that  now  in  question.  These  are  in  oil.  There  is 
a  repetition,  if  not  two,  in  water-colours.  After  the  death 
of  Lord  Mount-Temple,  his  widow,  partly  in  regard,  it  is 
said,  to  his  wish,  most  generously,  as  a  memorial  of  that 
warm  and  sympathetic  admirer  of  the  artist,  gave  this,  the 
finest  example,  to  the  National  Gallery. 


MADDALENA  DONI 

(Raphael) 

JULIA  CARTWRIGHT 

"  TN  Florence,  more  than  in  any  other  city,  men  become 
«*•  perfect  in  all  the  arts,  especially  in  that  of  painting. 
There  the  fine  air  makes  men  naturally  quick  to  praise  and 
blame,  prompt  to  see  what  is  good  and  beautiful,  unwilling 
to  tolerate  mediocrity.  The  keen  struggle  for  life  sharpens 
the  wits,  and  the  love  of  glory  is  stirred  in  the  hearts  of 
men  of  every  profession."  Such,  according  to  Vasari,  were 
the  words  in  which  Perugino's  old  Umbrian  master  urged 
him  to  seek  his  fortunes  in  Florence.  And  now  the  same 
impulse  drew  his  still  more  gifted  scholar  to  the  banks  of 
the  Arno,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  Raphael  came  to 
Florence,  as  a  learner,  in  the  words  of  his  patroness — per 
imparare.  The  moment  was  a  memorable  one.  Never, 
even  in  the  Magnifico  Lorenzo's  days,  had  so  brilliant  a 
company  of  artists  met  together  within  the  city  walls,  as 
that  which  assembled  in  January,  1504,  to  decide  on  the 
site  of  Michelangelo's  David.  Among  the  architects 
present  on  the  occasion  were  Cronaca  and  the  brothers 
Sangallo;  among  the  sculptors,  Andrea  della  Robbia  and 
Sansovino  ;  among  the  painters,  Cosimo,  Roselli,  Sandro 
Botticelli,  Filippino  Lippi,  Piero  di  Cosimo,  Lorenzo  di 
Credi,  Pietro  Perugino  and  Lionardo  da  Vinci.  All  of  these 


272  MADDALENA  DONI 

were  still  living  when  Raphael  came  to  Florence,  with  the 
single  exception  of  Filippino. 

The  sight  of  Florence  itself — of  that  dome  which  had  as 
yet  no  rival,  of  the  palaces  and  churches  which  lined  the 
streets,  of  the  frescoes  that  filled  chapels  and  convent-cells 
with  light  and  colour,  of  Delia  Robbia's  blue-and-white 
Madonnas,  and  angels  shining  down  above  the  crowded 
market-place  and  in  the  quiet  corners  of  side  alleys — might 
well  delight  Raphael's  soul.  The  city  and  the  works  of 
art  he  saw  there,  says  Vasari,  alike  seemed  divine  to  him, 
and  he  asked  nothing  better  than  to  take  up  his  abode  there, 
and  spend  the  rest  of  his  days  at  Florence. 

He  went  everywhere  and  saw  everything.  His  quick 
eye  took  note  of  each  different  object  in  this  new  and  won- 
derful world,  and  his  hand  recorded  countless  forms  and 
shapes  which  he  could  never  have  dreamt  of  in  his  Umbrian 
days.  He  lingered  in  the  dim  chapel  of  the  Carmine  until 
he  knew  every  figure  in  Masaccio's  works  by  heart,  he 
studied  Ghirlandajo's  heads  and  Donatello's  marbles,  and 
made  careful  drawings  of  Michelangelo's  David  on  sheets 
which  may  still  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum.  But  it 
was  Lionardo  above  all  others  who  attracted  him  by  the 
science  and  beauty  of  his  art.  u  He  stood  dumb,"  Vasari 
tells  us,  "before  the  grace  of  his  figures,  and  thought  him 
superior  to  all  other  masters.  In  fact,  the  style  of  Lionardo 
pleased  him  better  than  any  which  he  had  ever  seen,  and, 
leaving  the  manner  of  Piero,  he  endeavoured  with  infinite 
pains  to  imitate  the  art  of  Lionardo.  From  having  been  a 
master  he  once  more  became  a  pupil." 


MADDALENA   DONI 


MADDALENA  DONI  273 

The  letter  of  La  Profetessa  does  not  seem  to  have 
brought  him  any  commission  from  the  Gonfaloniere,  who 
had  already  the  two  greatest  living  painters  in  his  service,, 
and  many  other  excellent  artists  awaiting  his  commands. 
But  the  recommendations  of  his  Urbino  friends  and  the 
influence  of  his  master  Perugino — above  all,  his  own  charm- 
ing nature,  brought  him  many  friends,  and  made  him  a 
general  favourite  in  artistic  circles.  He  was  a  frequent 
visitor  at  the  shop  of  the  distinguished  architect  Baccio 
d'  Agnolo,  where  artists  of  every  age  and  rank  met  on 
winter  evenings  to  discuss  problems  connected  with  their 
craft.  All  the  well-known  painters  and  sculptors  in  Flor- 
ence were  to  be  seen  at  these  gatherings  in  turn,  and  some- 
times, although  rarely,  the  great  Michelangelo  himself 
would  look  in. 

Among  the  visitors  who  came  to  Baccio  d*  Agnolo's 
gatherings  was  Taddeo  Taddei,  a  wealthy  Florentine  of 
cultivated  tastes,  who  corresponded  with  Bembo  and  was  a 
liberal  patron  of  the  fine  arts.  Baccio  d*  Agnolo  had  built 
him  a  palace  in  the  Via  de'  Ginori,  and  Michelangelo  had 
carved  one  of  his  finest  Holy  Families  for  him  in  stone. 
Taddeo  soon  made  friends  with  Raphael,  and  was  never 
happy  unless  the  young  painter  were  in  his  house  and 
at  his  table.  And  Raphael,  writes  Vasari,  "who  was  the 
most  amiable  of  men  (cb'  era  la  gentilezza  stessa),  not 
to  be  outdone  in  courtesy,  painted  two  pictures  for  him, 
which  Taddeo  valued  among  his  most  precious  treasures." 
u  Show  all  honour  to  Taddeo,  of  whom  we  have  so  often 
spoken,"  wrote  the  painter  to  his  uncle  Simone,  when  his 


274  MADDALENA  DONI 

friend  was  about  to  visit  Urbino,  "  for  there  is  no  man  living 
to  whom  I  am  more  deeply  indebted."  Another  noble  Flor- 
entine who  shared  Raphael's  intimacy  was  Lorenzo  Nasi, 
afterwards  one  of  the  City  priors.  Either  of  these  friends 
may  have  recommended  him  to  the  wealthy  merchant 
Agnolo  Doni,  one  of  the  most  discerning  and  at  the  same 
time  one  of  the  most  niggardly  lovers  of  pictures  in  Flor- 
ence. This  cautious  personage,  whose  palace  was  a  museum 
of  antique  and  contemporary  art,  had  lately  bought  Michel- 
angelo's famous  Holy  Family  of  the  Tribune,  after  wrang- 
ling with  Buonarotti  for  months  over  the  price.  Now  in 
his  anxiety  to  obtain  good  pictures  at  the  lowest  possible 
price,  he  employed  the  young  painter  from  Urbino,  who 
was  as  yet  little  known  in  Florence,  to  paint  his  own 
portrait  and  that  of  his  wife,  a  lady  of  the  Strozzi  family. 
Both  of  these  portraits,  which  hang  to-day  in  the  Pitti 
Gallery,  are  admirable  examples  of  Raphael's  close  and 
faithful  study  of  life.  They  are  painted  with  the  same 
minute  attention  to  detail,  the  same  anxious  rendering  of 
each  single  hair,  that  we  note  in  the  Borghese  portrait. 
The  wealthy  merchant  in  his  black  damask  suit  and  red 
sleeves,  with  refined  features  and  keen  anxious  gaze,  his 
staid,  richly-dressed  wife  in  her  blue  brocades  and  jewelled 
necklace,  well  satisfied  with  herself  and  all  the  world,  are 
living  types  of  their  class.  Yet  in  the  form  of  the  pic- 
tures, in  the  pose  of  Maddalena  Doni's  head  and  of  her 
placidly  folded  hands,  we  are  conscious  of  a  new  influence. 
If  from  the  picture  we  turn  to  the  pen-and-ink  sketch  in 
the  Louvre,  we  see  at  a  glance  that  Lionardo's  Mona  Lisa 


MADDALENA  DONI  275 

was  in  Raphael's  mind  when  he  painted  Maddalena  Doni's 
portrait.  The  cut  of  the  dress,  the  ripple  of  the  hair, 
the  very  folds  of  the  bodice  are  exactly  copied  from  that 
famous  picture,  which  Raphael  must  have  seen  in  Francesco 
Giocondo's  house  in  Florence.  Only  instead  of  Leonardo's 
rock  landscape,  he  has  sketched  a  view  of  Umbrian  hills 
and  Urbino  towers,  framed  in  between  the  columns  of  an 
open  loggia.  There  is,  we  must  confess,  a  charm  in  the 
drawing  which  is  lacking  in  the  picture.  The  maiden  with 
the  dreamy  eyes  and  youthful  face  was  the  painter's  ideal ; 
the  other  was  the  actual  woman,  Maddalena  Doni,  the  rich 
merchant's  wife,  a  subject,  it  may  be,  not  very  much  to  his 
taste,  but  none  the  less  to  be  painted  with  perfect  accuracy 
and  truth. 


PHILIP  IV.  OF  SPAIN 

(Velasquez) 

CLAUDE  PHILLIPS 

EUROPEAN  and  American  connoisseurs  have  been 
much  occupied  in  disputing  as  to  the  authenticity  of 
a  full-length  of  Philip  IV.  in  youth,  ascribed  to  Velasquez, 
which  was,  at  the  instance  of  Dr.  Denman  W.  Ross,  a 
Trustee  of  the  Fine  Arts  Museum  of  Boston,  purchased 
for  that  museum  in  September,  1904,  at  the  price  of  a  little 
over  ;£  1 0,000  sterling.  The  following  extract  from  the 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts  Bulletin  gives  succinctly  the  facts  of 
the  case  and  the  contention  of  the  committee  responsible 
for  the  purchase  of  the  much-discussed  picture  : 

"  THE  NEW  VELASQUEZ  " 

"The  Committee  on  the  Museum  makes  the  following 
statement  with  regard  to  the  Velasquez  portrait,  believed 
to  represent  Philip  IV.  of  Spain,  now  hung  in  the  First 
Picture  Gallery. 

"  The  purchase  of  the  picture  was  authorized  by  the 
Committee  by  cable  of  September  2yth,  1904,  to  Dr.  Den- 
man W.  Ross,  a  member  of  the  Committee,  then  in  Madrid, 
in  response  to  a  cable  from  Dr.  Ross,  stating  the  offer  of 
the  picture,  and  its  high  quality.  The  purchase  was  made 
by  Dr.  Ross,  after  examination  of  the  picture  and  com- 


PHILIP  IV.  OF  SPAIN  277 

parison  of  it  with  others  by  Velasquez  in  the  Prado,  upon 
the  evidence  which  the  painting  itself  afforded  of  its  beauty 
and  genuineness. 

"  An  attack  on  the  genuineness  of  the  picture  was  made 
in  an  anonymous  communication  received  by  the  Museum 
in  the  month  of  November.  The  Committee  has  endeav- 
oured to  obtain  the  name  of  the  writer  without  success. 

"  The  picture  has  since  been  submitted  to  a  number  of 
painters  and  critics  of  painting,  both  of  New  York  and 
Boston,  who  are  entitled  to  be  considered  judges  in  such  a 
matter,  by  reason  of  their  familiarity  with  and  study  of  the 
works  of  Velasquez.  Their  testimony — with  a  single 
exception — is  unanimous  and  strong  in  favor  of  the  genu- 
ineness of  the  work. 

"  The  Committee  on  the  Museum  believes  the  picture 
to  be  genuine,  and  considers  the  Museum  fortunate  in  its 
possession.  It  has  assigned  the  picture  as  a  purchase  from 
the  fund  bequeathed  to  the  Museum  by  the  late  Sarah 
Wyman  Whitman." 

Seldom  has  the  world  of  art  and  art-criticism  been  more 
divided  on  a  point  of  such  interest  and  importance.  Senor 
Beruete,  the  latest  biographer  of  Velasquez,  and  a  critic  of 
the  master  and  his  works,  in  whose  judgment  many  modern 
students  of  the  great  Spaniard's  art  place  great  reliance, 
has,  as  I  understand — for  I  have  not  actually  seen  the  letters 
in  which  his  opinions  are  set  forth — denied  the  right  of  the 
picture  to  be  included  in  the  catalogue  of  authentic  works. 
Unless  I  am  wholly  misinformed,  he  calls  in  question  the 
accuracy  of  the  statements  made  to  the  purchasers,  as  to 


278  PHILIP  IV.  OF  SPAIN 

the  provenance  of  the  new  "  Philip  IV."  and  states  that  his 
incredulity  is  based  on  a  careful  examination  of  the  picture, 
and  a  comparison  of  its  technique  with  that  of  well- 
authenticated  portraits  in  the  Prado  Gallery,  of  much  the 
same  period  in  Velasquez'  practice.  Some  dealers  and 
collectors,  both  in  Europe  and  the  United  States,  have,  as  I 
am  told,  followed  and  approved  the  latest  biographer  of  the 
master  in  his  outspoken  expressions  of  unbelief.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  body  of  instructed  opinion  in  America,  now 
that  the  first  scare  is  over,  strongly  upholds  the  authenticity 
of  the  museum's  costly  purchase.  My  friend  Mr.  Roger 
Fry,  upon  whose  high  competence  as  a  critic  it  would  be 
superfluous  for  me  to  dilate,  has  very  recently  had  an 
opportunity  of  carefully  scrutinizing  the  Boston  canvas; 
and  he  authorizes  the  statement  that,  in  his  opinion,  the 
painting  is  undoubtedly  authentic,  and  a  characteristic  ex- 
ample of  Don  Diego's  early  style.  It  behooves  me  to  give 
my  opinion  in  all  modesty,  since  I  know  the  "  Philip  IV." 
in  dispute,  not  in  the  original,  but  only  in  the  excellent 
photographs  executed  for  the  Boston  Museum  and  here 
reproduced.  I  may,  however,  without  imprudence,  state 
that  the  impression  made  upon  me  by  these  is  an  entirely 
favourable  one.  From  these  reproductions  I  should  take 
the  Boston  "  Philip  IV."  to  be  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the 
very  first,  of  the  long  succession  of  portraits  painted  of  the 
taciturn,  impassive  monarch  by  his  Court  Painter,  between 
the  years  1623  and  1660 — that  is,  between  the  date  when 
Velasquez  first  became  attached  to  the  Court,  and  the  date 
of  his  death.  To  me — and  I  repeat  that  I  do  not  assume 


PHILIP  IV.  OF  SPAIN  279 

to  judge,  but  merely  record  the  impression  which  results 
from  a  careful  comparison  of  reproductions — the  Boston 
"  Philip  IV."  appears  to  be,  in  style  and  mode  of  execution, 
identical  with  the  famous  "  Conde-Duque  Olivarez,"  in 
the  collection  of  Captain  Holford,  at  Dorchester  House, 
which  Carl  Justi,  in  his  noted  biography  of  Velasquez, 
describes  as  "  the  most  important  extant  picture  in  the  ear- 
liest— that  is,  the  Sevillian — style,  and  one  the  authenticity 
of  which  has  been  questioned,  just  because  that  style  is  not 
understood."  The  carefulness,  the  incisive  strength,  even 
in  this  early  phase,  and,  moreover,  the  hardness  of  the 
touch — in  the  treatment  of  the  hair,  in  the  modelling  of 
the  face  and  hands — these  essential  characteristics  are  the 
same  in  both,  and  such  as,  with  more  still  of  primitiveness, 
and  nai've  reflection  of  reality,  we  may  trace  in  the  bodegones^ 
or  kitchen  pieces,  of  the  Sevillian  period,  the  great  majority 
of  which  are  now  in  England. 

The  same  harshness  and  naive  realism  reappear  in  the 
famous  "  Los  Borrachos "  of  the  Prado  Gallery,  but  with 
something  more  of  flexibility  in  the  rendering  of  facial  ex- 
pression and  an  increased  mastery  in  the  modelling  of  flesh. 
The  first  "  Philip  IV."  of  the  whole  set  is  very  generally 
held  to  be  the  bust  portrait  No.  1071  in  the  Prado,  which, 
according  to  tradition,  was  executed  as  a  preliminary  study 
for  the  equestrian  portrait  painted  of  the  King  in  August, 
1623,  of  which  famous  canvas  no  trace  now  remains.  No 
portrait  in  the  group  of  pictures  now  under  discussion  can 
well  come  earlier  in  date  than  this  lost  canvas,  seeing  that 
'•n  all  of  these  the  youthful  King  already  wears  the  plain 


280  PHILIP  IV.  OF  SPAIN 

golilla,  or  stiffened  white  lawn  collar,  which  by  edict  of  the 
nth  January,  1623,  was  made  to  replace  in  the  Court  cos- 
tume the  elaborate  gorguera,  or  stiffened  lace  ruff.  The 
portrait  which,  of  all  others,  stands  in  the  closest  relation  to 
the  Boston  "  Philip "  is  the  "  Full-length  with  the  Peti- 
tion," No.  1070  in  the  Prado,  the  head  of  which  is  almost 
a  repetition  of  that  in  the  bust-portrait.  At  first  sight  the 
Boston  and  Madrid  pictures  might  be  deemed  to  be  prac- 
tically identical  in  design,  but  a  closer  examination  shows 
that  this  is  far  from  being  the  case.  The  Boston  "  Philip  " 
stands  quite  differently,  and  more  like  the  superb  "  Don 
Carlos,  Brother  of  Philip  IV."  No.  1073  in  the  Prado, 
which  was  painted  a  couple  of  years  later  on.  The  inclina- 
tion of  the  head  is  slightly  different,  the  doublet  less  rich, 
a  collar  of  wrought  gold  is  worn,  over  the  broad  ribbon 
which  supports  the  Golden  Fleece  ;  the  design  of  the  man- 
tle is  materially  different,  the  paper  held  in  the  right  hand 
of  other  form  and  design.  The  table  in  the  Boston  exam- 
ple has  a  cover  more  richly  laced  with  gold  than  that  in  the 
Madrid  picture,  with  which  it  is  now  compared.  And, 
above  all,  in  the  latter  the  expression  of  the  King  is  less 
stolid,  more  assured,  more  royal. 

Closely  related  to  these  two  canvases  is  yet  another  now 
in  Boston,  in  the  splendid  collection  of  Mrs.  John  Gardiner. 
This  is  a  "  Philip  IV.,"  a  full-length  of  much  the  same 
period,  which,  as  I  am  informed,  came  from  the  collection 
of  the  late  Mr.  Banks  at  Kingston  Lacy.  Infinitely  finer 
as  a  work  of  art  than  any  of  these  paintings — indeed,  than 
anything  that  Velasquez  had  up  to  that  point  produced — is 


PHILIP  IV.  OF  SPAIN  28l 

that  sober  yet  sumptuous  portrait  d*apparaty  the  "  Don 
Carlos,"  mentioned  above.  In  design,  at  any  rate,  it  hardly 
knows  a  superior,  even  among  the  royal  portraits  coming 
later  on  in  the  series.  I  should  be  strongly  inclined  to  say 
that  among  the  counterfeits  of  members  of  the  royal  house 
belonging  to  this,  the  initial  period  of  Don  Diego's  Court 
practice  at  Madrid,  it  knew  no  rival — let  alone  a  superior — 
did  I  not  bear  in  mind  a  masterpiece  much  nearer  at  hand 
— the  magnificent  "  Philip  IV."  of  Dorchester  House.  If 
this  last  does  not  quite  equal  the  "  Don  Carlos  "  in  freedom 
and  assurance  of  design,  it  greatly  exceeds  not  only  this, 
but  all  previous  works  coming  within  the  first  period  in 
concentrated  vigour  of  execution  as  well  as  in  beauty  and 
inventiveness  of  colour. 

Philip  stands  here  by  the  side  of  the  same  table  and 
richly-laced  table-cover  with  which  we  have  made  acquaint- 
ance in  the  Boston  picture.  But  he  wears  a  sumptuous 
half-military,  half-civilian  costume :  a  buff  jerkin  over 
chain-mail,  and  a  costume  of  brownish-grey,  amaranth- 
purple  and  gold,  with  a  rich  scarf  of  the  same  colour,  simi- 
larly trimmed.  The  baton  of  military  command  is  firmly 
though  undemonstratively  grasped.  The  King  seems  here 
no  longer  the  colourless  being,  walled  round  with  an  im- 
penetrable reserve,  that  he  is  in  civilian  garb,  from  the  very 
beginning  of  his  reign ;  he  stands  forth  confidently  as  the 
general  and  leader  of  men.  Though  hardly  less  rigid  and 
impassive  in  attitude  than  in  the  group  of  portraits  just 
now  passed  in  review,  he  is  alert,  full  of  the  pride  of  youth- 
ful manhood,  without  misgiving  as  to  his  power  to  com- 


28 2  PHILIP  IV.  OF  SPAIN 

mand  and  his  right  to  receive  unquestioning  obedience. 
Save  in  the  famous  equestrian  portrait  of  the  Prado,  and 
the  beautiful  Dulwich  portrait,  which  must  have  been  de- 
signed and  schemed  out  by  Velasquez,  even  though  it  does 
not  bear  unmistakable  traces  of  his  own  sovereign  brush — 
save  in  these  two  exceptional  performances,  and  perhaps  in 
the  attractive  portrait  in  hunting  costume,  at  the  Prado,  we 
do  not  find  the  anaemic  and  repellent  monarch,  upon  whom 
Velazquez  has  conferred  immortality,  so  galvanized  for  the 
moment  into  life  and  virile  energy. 

It  is  a  pity  that,  before  the  "  Philip  IV."  left  Europe  to 
take  its  place  in  the  Fine  Arts  Museum  of  Boston,  it  should 
not  have  been  publicly  exhibited  at  one  of  the  "  Old 
Masters  "  shows  of  Burlington  House,  or  in  Paris,  where 
competent  judges  of  Velasquez  are  not  scarce.  As  it  is, 
it  may  be  long  before  the  storm  that  rages  round  the  new 
acquisition  in  the  chief  centres  of  American  connoisseur- 
ship  is  allayed  by  a  definitive  pronouncement  that  all  con- 
cerned may  unreservedly  accept.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  the  Boston  Museum  acquired  a  few  years  ago,  for  a 
sum  approaching  £20,000  sterling,  the  "  Don  Baltasar 
Carlos  with  a  Dwarf,"  an  important  Velasquez  from  the 
Castle  Howard  collection,  which  Londoners  had  had  an 
opportunity  of  seeing  in  the  Spanish  Exhibition  at  the  New 
Gallery. 


LUCREZIA  TORNABUONI 

(Botticelli") 

ALPHONSE   DE  CALONNE 

TOWARDS  the  end  of  his  notice  of  Sandro  Botticelli, 
Vasari,  after  having  enumerated  the  numerous  works 
of  the  painter,  adds  that  he  made  two  portraits  in  profile  of 
two  illustrious  women  with  different  titles, — that  of  the 
wife  of  Piero  de'  Medici  the  first  of  the  name,  and  that  of 
the  mistress  of  Giuliano.  He  does  not  mention  the  name 
of  the  latter,  but  it  is  easy  to  guess  it. 

The  second  portrait  is  that  of  the  "  Bella  Simonetta." 
In  fact,  in  the  Pitti  Gallery  at  Florence  there  is  a  bust 
length  figure  with  profile  turned  to  the  left,  clothed  in  a 
brown  robe  cut  open  in  front  and  laced  over  a  white  linen 
chemisette.  The  neck  is  of  an  inordinate  length,  the  nose 
large  and  prominent ;  the  blonde  hair,  arranged  in  careless 
bands,  is  confined  upon  the  head  by  a  white  caul.  The 
costume  is  one  of  early  morning,  if  indeed  not  a  night  one. 

It  is  difficult  to  recognize  the  model,  or  the  hand  of  the 
painter  in  this  portrait.  He  never  exhibited  in  his  treat- 
ment of  costume  and  head-dress  such  a  poverty  of  art  and 
imagination.  As  for  the  model,  if  it  is  true  that  this  was 
Simonetta  Vespucci,  the  beautiful  Genoese,  the  wife  of  the 
Florentine  Cattani,  we  cannot  help  being  astonished  that 
she  could  have  inspired  Poliziano  with  so  great  an  admira- 


284  LUCREZIA  TORNABUONI 

tion,  and  Giuliano  de'  Medici  with  so  great  a  passion  for 
her  beauty.  It  is  true  that  to  her  charms,  she  added,  says 
history,  a  cast  of  mind  and  a  literary  culture  that  were 
greatly  appreciated  at  this  time,  especially  in  Florence. 
Still,  as  we  meet  with  another  profile  portrait  in  the  Musee 
de  Conde,  at  Chantilly,  which  has  a  certain  analogy  with 
that  in  the  Pitti  Palace,  but  which  is  incomparably  more 
beautiful,  which  bears  all  the  marks  of  Botticelli's  most 
charming  manner  and  at  the  bottom  of  which  is  inscribed 
in  the  paint — SIMONETTA  JANVENSIS  VESPUCCIA,  no  doubt 
is  possible ;  certainly,  we  have  here  a  true  portrait  of 
Simonetta,  and  the  other  can  only  be  a  caricature.  If 
Giuliano,  the  son  of  Piero,  was  assassinated  on  her  account, 
we  are  not  at  all  surprised.  But  who  painted  that  portrait 
at  Chantilly  ?  Is  it  by  Botticelli,  or  is  it  by  Pollajuolo  ? 
The  critics  disagree.  M.  Gruyer  inclines  towards  the  lat- 
ter, M.  Reiset,  a  former  owner  of  the  work,  does  not  ques- 
tion it.  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle  pronounce  in  favour  of 
Botticelli.  M.  Lafenestre  shares  their  opinion,  and  Vasari 
seems  to  give  them  authority. 

If  we  turn  to  the  other  portrait,  regarding  the  double 
authenticity  of  the  author  and  his  subject,  we  shall  find 
nothing  to  disturb  us.  It  certainly  is  the  beautiful  Lucrezia 
Tornabuoni,  the  daughter  of  Francesco  Tornabuoni,  the 
wife  of  Piero  I.  de'  Medici,  the  son  of  Cosmo  the  elder, 
called  u  the  Father  of  his  Country."  We  find  ourselves  in 
the  full  bloom  of  the  Fifteenth  Century,  in  the  midst  of  the 
most  celebrated  quatrocentisti.  Florence  was  at  this  moment 
the  focus  of  the  whole  intellectual  world.  The  names  of 


LUCREZIA    TORNABUONI 


LUCREZIA  TORNABUONI  285 

her  great  artists,  her  opulent  merchants,  and  her  literary 
celebrities  resounded  throughout  the  universe.  Even  to- 
day you  cannot  take  a  step  in  that  city  without  running 
against  a  celebrated  monument,  or  reading  a  famous  name 
at  the  corners  of  the  streets.  The  Pitti,  the  Albizzi,  the 
Strozzi,  the  Rucellai,  the  Doni,  the  Calzajoli,  and  the 
Tornabuoni  have  left  marks  and  traces  of  their  wealth, 
their  taste  and  their  generosity  everywhere. 

This  Lucrezia  Tornabuoni  was  not  merely  the  daughter 
of  an  illustrious  and  rich  family,  she  was  the  most  beauti- 
ful of  beautiful  Florentines  and  one  of  those  women  whose 
education  was  carried  to  such  a  high  degree  that  they  were 
companionable  and  able  to  exchange  ideas  with  the  greatest 
scholars,  historians,  poets  and  theologians.  A  poet  herself, 
Lucrezia  put  a  portion  of  the  Bible  into  Italian  verse ;  and 
as  Poliziano  has  extolled  her  mind  and  her  beauty,  as  Fran- 
cesco Serdonati  has  placed  her  in  the  rank  of  the  illustrious 
ladies,  and  as  the  historian  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  places  a 
part  of  the  glory  of  u  the  Magnificent "  upon  her  who  was 
his  mother,  the  malignity  of  Guicciardini  and  the  venal 
partiality  of  Paul  Jove  have  never  been  able  to  destroy 
the  reputation  of  that  woman  whose  virtues  were  so 
honoured  by  Florence.  She  was  an  exception  to  the  man- 
ners of  the  age.  Perhaps  we  are  too  much  inclined  to  con- 
sider those  manners  only  by  means  of  the  pictures  which 
the  writers  of  the  period  have  bequeathed  to  us.  However, 
in  order  that  opinions  should  agree  regarding  a  woman  who 
by  means  of  her  position  and  also  her  education  was 
plunged  into  all  the  perils  of  a  gay,  if  not  indeed  a  corrupt, 


286  LUCREZIA  TORNABUONI 

society,  her   honour  must  have  dominated  sufficiently  to 
silence  the  voice  of  calumny. 

Botticelli  did  not  paint  her  undressed  as  he  did  the 
Simonetta  at  Chantilly ;  his  respect  for  her  prevented  this, 
and  he  turned  her  profile  to  the  right.  He  dressed  her 
richly,  in  the  fashion  of  the  day,  which  singularly  pleased 
his  fantastic  taste,  a  fantastic  taste  that  belonged  to  one 
who  was  familiar  with  jewelry-work  and  which  he  made 
very  original.  None  of  the  quatrocentisti  ever  handled 
materials  or  treated  hair  as  he  did.  Here  he  shows  himself 
comparatively  sober.  The  dress  is  almost  simple.  A 
fabric  of  fine  linen,  pleated  and  ornamented  with  three 
rows  of  open-work  embroidery  envelops  the  bust,  which  is 
finely  and  fully  curved.  On  the  shoulders,  the  light 
material  is  puffed  and  seems  to  have  inspired  the  modern 
dressmakers  with  the  model  of  their  sleeves.  The  arrange- 
ment of  the  hair  is  very  complicated,  but  far  less  so  than 
was  the  painter's  custom.  Plaited  locks  of  hair  are 
mingled  with  plaited  velvet  ornamented  with  pearls,  and 
the  latter  is  carried  around  the  shoulders  to  form  a  heart- 
shaped  garniture  for  the  corsage.  Wavy  locks  float  freely 
down  from  the  temple,  hiding  the  ear.  A  wavy  lock  falls 
at  the  back  from  a  knot  of  velvet  ornamented  with  pearls. 
Another  wavy  lock  descends  from  the  left  side  of  the  fore- 
head and  forms  a  background  for  the  line  of  the  nose. 
The  neck,  evidently  too  long,  is  adorned  with  a  locket,  an 
antique  engraved  stone,  suspended  from  a  gold  chain  of  six 
rows.  Finally,  upon  the  top  of  the  head,  a  golden  orna- 
ment holds  in  its  place  an  aigrette  slightly  inclined  from 


LUCREZIA  TORNABUONI  287 

right  to  left,  this  only  ornament  gives  a  certain  cavalier  look 
to  the  figure. 

This  cavalier  air  is  not,  however,  reproduced  in  the  pro- 
file, which  is  drawn  with  a  correctness  worthy  of  Hellenic 
art.  The  forehead  has  not  the  height  that  Botticelli  and 
the  fashion  of  the  time  gave  to  the  elect.  One  might  be- 
Jieve  that  the  model  imposed  her  will  upon  the  artist  and 
forced  him  to  carry  his  pencil  back  to  the  proportions  of 
the  antique. 

The  drawing  of  the  nose  is  very  delicate  and  very  fine. 
It  is  pure>  but  it  does  not  follow  an  absolutely  straight  line. 
It  describes  a  soft  curve  which  sensibly  tilts  upwards  at  its 
lower  extremity.  The  nostril  is  modelled  to  perfection  ;  the 
large  eye  expressive  of  infinite  gentleness  is  as  it  were 
haloed  by  a  narrow  and  long  eyebrow.  The  whole  upper 
part  of  this  visage  is  exquisite.  The  bow-shaped  mouth, 
which  is  not  wanting  in  firmness,  speaks  the  same  language 
as  the  eye ;  but  a  very  slight  projection  of  the  lower  lip 
imprints  a  kind  of  sorrowful  expression  upon  it. 

The  portrait  is,  moreover,  of  a  very  young  woman, 
almost  a  young  girl.  If  it  were  not  for  the  opulence  of 
the  bosom,  you  would  hardly  give  seventeen  years  to  the 
head.  Had  the  wife  of  Piero  dej  Medici  already  known 
the  troubles  of  grandeur  at  the  threshold  of  marriage  ? 
History  says  nothing  of  this.  Was  the  painter  the  only 
one  to  receive  her  confidences,  or  did  he  devine  them  ?  It 
belongs  most  certainly  to  the  genius  of  a  painter  to  discover 
the  secret  thoughts  that  agitate  his  models.  This  profile, 
so  suave  and  so  pure,  is  certainly  more  eloquent  and  true 


288  LUCREZIA  TORNABUONI 

than  the  most  delicate  poetry  of  the  writers  of  the  period 
could  have  been.  Candour  which  is  spread  over  the  whole 
face  stops  at  the  mouth.  The  lips  show  that  the  experi- 
ence of  life  has  already  stifled  illusions.  Wife  of  the  first 
Citizen  of  Florence,  who  to-morrow  was  to  become  its 
master  under  a  title  that  had  become  hereditary,  a  woman 
who  had  the  reputation  of  being  virtuous,  wise,  and 
lettered  to  a  wonderful  extent,  ranking  with  her  most 
famous  compatriots,  she  was  a  mother  whom  calumny  never 
attacked,  and  she  died  too  young  even  to  have  foreseen  the 
unhappy  days  which  were  soon  to  weaken  the  popularity 
of  the  plebeian  and  quasi-royal  house  into  which  she  had 
married. 

She  had  five  children,  two  of  whom  were  sons  :  Lorenzo 
the  Magnificent,  to  whom  Florence  owed  half  of  her  glory  ; 
and  Giuliano,  that  young  man,  who  was  the  lover  of 
Simonetta  Vespucci  and  who  was  assassinated  at  the  age 
of  thirty-five. 

This  portrait  of  Lucrezia  Tornabuoni  is  not  only  a 
masterpiece  of  painting,  but  a  perfect  likeness,  the  most 
perfect,  perhaps,  that  came  from  the  brush  of  a  master 
who  was  too  often  the  slave  of  his  imagination ;  it  is 
really  a  page  from  history,  one  of  those  works  to  which  an 
inquisitive  and  restless  mind  turns  to  question  in  hours  of 
study  and  reflection.  We  think,  on  our  part,  that  by 
means  of  its  reserve  it  redeems  the  painter's  mannerisms 
and  the  intentional  obscurities  of  his  allegorical  works.  In 
the  exuberance  of  his  compositions,  you  easily  notice  a 
passionate  and  sometimes  violent  spirit.  When  you  study 


LUCREZIA  TORNABUONI  289 

his  most  celebrated  compositions,  you  cannot  help  being 
surprised.  We  are  scarcely  astonished  to  find  him  a 
disciple  of  Savonarola ;  the  portrait  of  Lucrezia  does  not 
evoke  the  slightest  suspicion  of  this.  This  work  is  one 
of  the  pearls  of  the  Frankfort  Museum. 


PORTRAIT  OF  BERTIN  THE  ELDER 

(Ingres) 

GUSTEVE  LARROUMET 

THIS  superb  canvas,  an  honour  to  the  French  School 
in  a  class  in  which  it  particularly  excells,  possesses  a 
civic  interest,  related   by  the  historian  of  art  who  knew 
Ingres  best, — Count  Henri  Delaborde.     It  is  important  to 
transcribe  this  here  : 

"  The  portrait  of  M.  Berlin  was  the  final  result  of  many 
attempts  and  various  conceptions  by  Ingres  on  several 
canvases  and  in  several  attitudes  before  it  assumed  this 
aspect  of  robust  simplicity  to  which  it  owes  its  present 
celebrity.  At  one  time  even,  there  was  great  danger  that 
the  painter,  dissatisfied  with  the  constrained  poses  so  far 
held  by  his  model,  and  even  more  discontented  with  his 
own  efforts,  might  throw  up  altogether  a  work  that  he  had 
undertaken  solely  to  keep  an  old  promise.  An  unexpected 
incident  occurred  and  saved  the  situation.  Ingres  told 
M.  Reiset  that  at  the  height  of  his  troubles  and  hesitations 
he  happened  to  be  one  evening  in  M.  Berlin's  salon. 
There  was  a  discussion  on  political  affairs  between  the 
master  of  the  house  and  his  two  sons,  and  whilst  the  latter 
warmly  upheld  their  opinion,  M.  Bertin  listened  with  the 
air  and  attitude  of  a  man,  whom  contradiction  irritates  less 
than  it  inspires  him  with  an  increase  of  confidence  in  the 


BERTIN    THE   ELDER 


PORTRAIT  OF  BERTIN  THE  ELDER  291 

authority  of  the  words  he  has  already  uttered,  or  in  the 
approaching  eloquence  of  his  reply.  Nothing  could  be 
more  natural  or  expressive,  nor  anything  more  conformable 
to  the  character  of  the  personage  to  be  represented,  than 
this  appearance  of  a  force  that  is  sure  of  itself  as  well  as 
of  a  slightly  imperious  good  humour.  Thenceforth,  the 
exact  conditions  of  the  portrait  were  discovered.  There- 
fore Ingres,  greatly  delighted  at  this  unexpected  conquest, 
hastened  to  take  advantage  of  it,  and,  on  taking  leave  of 
M.  Bertin,  addressed  him  as  follows :  u  Your  portrait  is 
done.  This  time  I  have  you,  and  will  not  let  you  escape." 
In  fact,  on  the  morrow,  the  master  set  to  work  and  soon 
succeeded  in  bringing  to  life  on  the  canvas  the  man  whose 
moral  temperament  and  real  habits  had  been  thus  fortui- 
tously revealed  to  him." 

The  portrait  of  the  elder  Bertin,  painted  in  1832,  was 
exhibited  at  the  Salon  of  1833.  After  that  date,  it  re- 
mained in  possession  of  the  Bertin  family,  who  presented 
it  to  the  Louvre  in  1898. 

The  figure  is  of  life  size.  Seated  in  an  office  chair  he 
is  seen  down  to  the  knees.  The  body  is  three  quarters  and 
the  head  full  face.  The  left  shoulder  is  slightly  raised  and 
the  head  leans  a  little  towards  the  right  shoulder.  The 
hands  are  set  flat  upon  the  widely  separated  knees.  It  is 
the  attitude  of  a  man  who  has  come  to  talk,  to  listen  and 
to  reply.  Bertin  is  dressed  in  a  black  frock  coat  and 
trousers  with  a  white  neck  scarf,  and  a  waistcoat  of  puce- 
coloured  silk.  A  watch  key  and  a  seal  hang  below  the 
waistcoat  over  the  trousers.  The  model  was  sixty-six 


2Q2  PORTRAIT  OF  BERTIN  THE  ELDER 

years  of  age.  Very  handsome  in  his  youth,  he  still  ex- 
hibits fine  features,  upon  which  intelligence  and  firmness 
are  imprinted ;  his  portly  figure  denotes  a  vigour  that  age 
has  not  impaired.  He  is  in  the  plenitude  of  his  physical 
and  moral  strength.  His  hair,  of  a  slaty  grey  and  white, 
is  very  thick  around  his  high  and  full  forehead ;  his  neck 
is  strong ;  in  his  brown  and  smooth-shaven  face  the  blood 
circulates  freely  and  eyes  of  a  chestnut  brown  look  out 
with  an  open  gaze ;  beneath  the  straight  nose  is  a  mouth 
admirable  in  its  delicacy  and  firmness. 

The  execution  unites  in  a  very  high  degree  those  same 
two  qualities,  delicacy  and  firmness.  It  is  broad  and  full 
of  precision.  Besides  this,  it  is  harmonious,  a  merit  not 
always  presented  by  pictures  of  Ingres.  Both  drawing  and 
colour  receive  full  value  here.  The  sombre  tints  of  the 
clothes,  the  dark  or  light  notes  of  the  face  and  hands  stand 
out  and  are  in  mutual  accord  against  a  light  brown  back- 
ground. The  oil  in  yellowing  with  age  has  covered  the 
canvas  with  a  golden  tint  that  gives  it  the  look  of  a  portrait 
by  an  old  master.  As  if  to  accentuate  the  attentive  pre- 
cision that  the  painter,  here  as  always,  has  put  into  this 
work  performed  with  so  much  enthusiasm,  what  is  more 
rare  is  his  employment  of  a  procedure  the  most  celebrated 
example  of  which  is  offered  by  the  Chase  of  St.  Ursula,  by 
Memling,  now  in  the  Hospital  Saint  Jean  de  Bruges,  in 
which  the  surrounding  objects  are  faithfully  reflected  as  in 
a  mirror  in  the  soldiers'  cuirasses.  On  the  left  arm  of  the 
polished  mahogany  chair  gleams  the  minute  image  of  a 
window. 


PORTRAIT  OF  BERTIN  THE  ELDER  293 

The  handsome  old  man  represented  in  this  portrait,  Louis 
Francois  Bertin,  always  known  under  the  appellation  of 
Bertin  the  Elder,  and  brother  of  Bertin  de  Veaux,  is  a  great 
name  in  the  French  press,  one  of  the  three  greatest,  with 
Emile  de  Girardin  and  Villemessant,  who  were  so  unlike 
him,  however.  He  is  thus  the  type  of  the  middle  class 
Frenchman  in  the  first  half  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
He  seriously  represents,  at  the  moment  of  its.  highest 
power,  that  class  of  which  Emile  Augier's  Monsieur  Poirier 
is  the  comic  incarnation. 

In  order  to  know  him  well,  we  must  read  a  study  of  him 
written  by  a  relative  of  his,  Leon  Say^  who  in  his  day  was 
the  great  bourgeois  that  Bertin  the  Elder  was  in  his.  He 
was  born  of  a  Picardy  father  and  a  Brie  mother ;  that  is  to 
say,  he  was  a  combination  of  tenacity  and  practical  mind, 
combative  humour  and  rectitude  of  judgment.  His  family 
exercised  functions  of  high  domesticity,  a  sort  of  manage- 
ment of  a  noble  family'.  He  was  brought  up  in  the  ideas 
of  constitutional  liberty  that  Montesquieu  had  formulated 
at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  in  the  love  of  "  philosophy," 
at  literature  after  the  manner  of  Voltaire,  with  a  taint  of 
the  enthusiasm  and  the  "  sensibility  "  with  which  Diderot 
and  J.  J.  Rosseau  had  warmed  up  the  Voltairian  spirit. 
He  was  in  favour  of  the  reforms  that  were  to  introduce 
more  justice  into  the  government  of  France,  and  particu- 
larly into  the  organization  of  society.  From  these  reforms, 
he  expected  a  legitimate  part  of  influence  and  the  sharing 
of  power  to  the  profit  of  the  class  to  which  he  belonged 
and  which  possessed  enlightened  ideals,  integrity  of  manners, 


294  PORTRAIT  OF  BERTIN  THE  ELDER 

love    of    work,    and,    consequently,    the     beginnings    of 
wealth. 

He  therefore  ardently  embraced  the  ideas  of  the  Revolu- 
tion when  they  first  appeared,  but  their  excesses  soon  in- 
spired him  with  horror  and  terror :  like  the  average  of  the 
French  middle  classes,  he  was  humane  and  well  balanced. 
Robespierre  turned  him  into  a  Royalist,  and  in  the  moder- 
ate papers  of  the  day  he  made  courageous  war  on  the 
Jacobins.  The  Ninth  of  Thermidor  was  almost  a  personal 
victory.  In  1800,  he  bought  a  little  paper,  Le  Journal  des 
D'ebats  et  Lois  du  Pouvoir  Legislatif  et  des  Actes  du  Gouverne- 
ment.  He  enlarged  and  transformed  it,  and  little  by  little 
equipped  it  with  all  the  organs  of  a  modern  newspaper : 
leading  articles  on  French  and  foreign  politics,  correspond- 
ence, literary,  dramatic  and  art  criticism.  He  supported 
the  opinions  of  the  middle  classes  in  this  sheet.  This  en- 
lightened and  opulent  class  was  conscious  of  its  victory  and 
wanted  to  organize  it  midway  between  despotism  and 
anarchy.  It  was  ready  to  support  any  government  that 
would  give  it  the  principal  part  of  power ;  it  cherished  a 
preference  for  the  ancient  royalty,  that  doubtless  would 
return,  taught  by  misfortune,  resigned  to  the  constitutional 
regime,  and  more  capable  of  reconciling  the  present  with 
the  past  than  any  other  regime  would  be.  It  would  reserve 
its  part  in  the  nobility,  a  part  restricted  and  without  privi- 
leges. Having  seen  the  common  people,  the  workmen  and 
the  peasants,  it  was  timid,  but  it  hoped  to  restrain  the 
movement,  and,  by  making  property  the  essential  condition 
for  entrance  to  the  Chambers,  to  keep  it  out  of  the  govenV" 


PORTRAIT  OF  BERTIN  THE  ELDER  295 

ment  for  a  long  time  yet.  These  ideas,  these  interests  and 
these  hopes  have  been  called  the  "  doctrinaire  spirit."  It 
was  going  to  be  incarnated  in  Royer  Collard  in  the  tribune, 
and  in  Bertin  the  Elder  in  the  press. 

But  for  that,  it  was  necessary  to  wait  till  1815,  for  the 
Imperialism  could  not  accommodate  itself  to  this  doctrine. 
It  confiscated  the  Journal  des  D'ebats ;  it  imprisoned  and 
banished  the  Bertin  brothers.  Having  recovered  possession 
of  his  family,  Bertin  supported  the  Restoration  in  so  far  as 
it  favoured  the  interests  of  the  middle  classes ;  he  fought 
against  it  in  its  attempt  to  return  to  the  old  regime.  He 
had  a  powerful  auxiliary  in  Chateaubriand,  but  he  made 
more  use  of  the  great  egotist  than  he  rendered  service  to 
him.  He  was  always  the  master  in  his  own  journal  and 
solely  responsible ;  the  articles  not  being  signed,  he  modified 
them  at  will,  so  that  they  conveyed  only  his  own  opinions. 
These  opinions  were  those  of  the  most  influential  and 
wealthy  class.  Bertin  was  honest  and  practical,  clear- 
sighted and  able,  courageous  and  tenacious.  In  1830,  the 
D'ebats  triumphed,  the  Revolution  of  July  occurred  truly  to 
the  profit  of  this  paper  which  its  director  said  he  produced 
"  only  for  five  hundred  people  in  Europe." 

When  he  died,  in  1841,  without  having  wanted  to  be 
anything  but  a  journalist,  without  having  entered  the 
Chambers  or  the  Administration,  he  saw  the  copy-holding 
middle  class,  under  a  king  of  its  own  choice,  mistress  of 
France.  He  did  not  foresee  1848,  the  logical  consequence 
of  the  abuse  of  power  by  a  class,  though  less  oppressive 
than  the  old  nobility,  yet  as  blind  and  egotistical.  If  it 


296  PORTRAIT  OF  BERTIN  THE  ELDER 

should  ever  come,  yet  he  thought  it  was  still  far  distant, — 
that  arrival  of  the  democracy,  which  was  quite  near,  and 
which  opposed,  restrained  or  turned  aside,  yet  ever  on  the 
march,  was  to  pursue  its  victory  through  the  second  half  of 
the  century. 

This  character  of  rectitude  and  adroitness,  this  fine  and 
strong  nature,  this  skilful  and  logical  part  played  have  been 
grasped  by  Ingres  and  fixed  in  a  vision  of  genius  with  a 
mastery  of  means  in  which  we  know  not  what  most  to  ad- 
mire, the  simplicity  or  the  art.  With  this  image  he  has 
truly  set  up  the  apotheosis  of  the  French  bourgeoisie  at  the 
culminating  point  of  its  greatness. 


MADAME  HENRIETTE  DE  FRANCE 

(Jean  Marc  Nattier) 

ANDRE  PERATE 

MADAME  HENRIETTE  died  on  the  loth  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1752,  stricken  suddenly  by  a  disease  of  the 
chest.  She  was  twenty-four  years  old ;  she  was  good  and 
very  sweet ;  she  was  considered  very  beautiful ;  and  was 
tenderly  cherished  by  her  father.  When  her  twin  sister, 
Madame  Elizabeth,  married  the  Infant,  Don  Philip,  Duke 
of  Parma,  and  left  France  for  Spain,  the  title  of  Madame 
and  the  prerogatives  of  the  eldest  daughter  belonged  to 
Henriette.  This  grief  overwhelmed  the  King  and  the 
court;  for  Louis  XV.  had  already  lost  three  children, 
although  they  were  very  young,  and  there  was  no  reason  to 
anticipate  the  death  of  such  an  amiable  princess. 

The  Museum  of  Versailles  has  won  for  her  many  sincere 
admirers,  who  pause  enraptured  before  the  sumptuous  can- 
vas by  Jean  Marc  Nattier,  one  of  the  purest  jewels  of  the 
series  of  the  portraits  of  the  Madames.  The  reproduction 
of  this  masterpiece  cannot  express  its  full  brilliancy.  A 
large  piece  of  blue  drapery  that  floats  across  the  picture  half 
hides  a  stone  colonnade  through  which  a  cloudy  sky  is  visi- 
ble. In  front  of  this  drapery,  Madame  Henriette  is  seated 
upon  a  chair  the  gilded  wooden  framework  of  which  frames 
a  gold  cloth.  She  is  dressed  in  a  robe  of  red  brocade  with 


2g 8  MADAME  HENRIETTE  DE  FRANCE 

a  pattern  of  golden  branches  and  the  full  skirt  sweeps  over 
a  carpet  of  blue  tones  upon  which  rest  the  points  of  her  lit- 
tle white  slippers.  In  the  centre  of  this  blazing  dome  rises 
the  narrow  bodice,  revealing  the  white  chest.  And  the 
smiling  face,  framed  with  light-brown  powdered  curls, 
seems  to  bow  to  the  rhythm  of  the  lace  sleeves  from  which 
protrude  beautiful  hands  :  one  holds  the  bow  while  the  other 
glides  along  the  strings  of  the  bass  viol  that  is  firmly  set  in 
the  stiff  folds  of  the  brocade  skirt.  To  the  right,  under  a 
great  draped  silk  curtain,  an  open  clavecin  with  carved  and 
gilded  feet  shows  its  ivory  key-board  edged  with  green 
lacquer.  A  music  book  attracts  the  eye.  In  a  free  half- 
figure  copy  that  Nattier  had  made  of  his  picture  (this  copy 
is  placed  above  a  door  in  the  Louis  XV.  chamber)  we  can 
decipher  at  least  the  title  of  the  air  which  the  royal  musi- 
cian is  playing,  and  there  we  read :  Aoust  Venus  et  Adonis, 
cantabile. 

But  the  music  played  to  us  by  the  harmonious  lines  and 
colours  produced  by  Nattier  has  a  charm  no  less  powerful 
than  a  cantata  by  Rameau  or  Gluck.  That  dominant  note 
of  red  in  which  the  golds  rise  so  splendidly,  blazing  and 
scintillating  and  then  descend  and  calm  down,  enveloped  in 
muted  tones,  carries  away  the  entire  work  in  its  majesty. 
On  looking  a  little  closer,  we  notice  more  delicate  plays  of 
colour,  the  rose  and  pale-yellow  of  the  flowers  in  the  pow- 
dered hair,  the  little  head  carved  on  the  scroll  of  the  viol, 
which  is  tied  with  a  lilac  ribbon,  and  the  white  satin  bows 
on  the  lace  sleeves,  and  the  pearl  ornaments  on  the  gold 
edgings  of  the  bodice.  These  are  some  details  of  the 


MADAME  HENRIETTE  DE  FRANCE  299 

masterly  treatment  of  this  great  adjuster  of  fashionable 
raiment  whose  elegance  and  graceful  fancy  has  never  been 
surpassed ;  but  he  is  not  satisfied  with  merely  a  play  of 
colours  in  materials,  he  makes  the  female  face  with  boldly 
painted  cheeks  bloom  with  robust  health  and  a  wealth  of 
generous  blood. 

The  picture  bears  the  date  1754;  that  is  to  say,  it  was 
finished  two  years  after  the  death  of  the  princess.  Nattier 
began  it  in  1748.  The  National  Archives  have  preserved 
its  history  for  us  with  great  completeness.  On  February 
22,  1752,  the  Queen  sent  to  ask  the  artist  for  it,  and 
Marigny  wrote  the  following  letter  to  Coypel :  "  Sir,  the 
Queen  has  told  me  that  she  would  like  to  have  the  portrait 
painted  by  M.  Nattier  of  the  late  Madame  playing  the  bass 
viol.  Be  kind  enough,  I  beg  you,  to  see  M.  Nattier  and 
learn  in  what  state  the  portrait  is,  whether  it  is  finished  or 
not.  In  the  former  case,  it  must  be  sent  here  immediately ; 
in  the  latter  case,  you  will  request  M.  Nattier  to  finish  it  as 
soon  as  he  possibly  can,  because  the  Queen  wishes  to  have 
it.  I  count  upon  you  to  inform  me  in  what  state  it  is,  and 
to  tell  me  how  soon  I  can  receive  it  here." 

The  portrait  was  delivered,  6,000  livres  were  paid  for  it, 
it  was  framed  by  Morissant  and  placed  in  the  apartments 
of  Madame  Adelaide,  from  whom  Nattier  obtained  in  1755 
through  the  intercession  of  Marigny  permission  to  exhibit 
it  at  the  Louvre.  "  Monsieur,"  the  artist  wrote,  "  as  you 
have  given  your  orders  for  the  exhibition  of  the  pictures 
for  the  Salon,  permit  me  to  entreat  you  to  ask  Madame 
Adelaide  if  she  will  be  good  enough  to  allow  the  picture  of 


300  MADAME  HENRIETTE  DE  FRANCE 

Madame  Henriette  to  be  exhibited  there.  As  it  is  one 
of  my  very  best  works,  I  am  sure  it  will  bring  me  honour. 
Moreover,  it  is  a  most  interesting  picture  and  will  make  a 
fine  figure  there.  As  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  that 
she  will  give  her  consent,  I  will  thank  you  to  give  the 
order  to  M.  Portail,  so  that  it  may  arrive  in  Paris  in  time 
for  it  to  gain  a  good  place  on  the  walls  of  the  Salon." 

Madame  Henriette  had  already  been  painted  by  Nattier. 
She  personified  Fire  in  the  series  of  the  four  Elements,  a 
mysterious  picture  which  we  only  know  by  the  engraving. 
A  lovely  Vestal  in  a  court  dress  with  pretty  silken  bows 
she  is  about  to  read  the  Histolre  des  Vestales ;  she  is  medi- 
tating as  she  sits  with  her  elbow  gently  resting  upon  a 
marble  altar  where  the  sacred  fire  burns ;  a  gay  altar  gar- 
landed with  roses  which  Fragonard  laughed  at.  And  still 
younger,  she  appears  as  Flora  in  one  of  those  studied  but 
delicious  mythological  pictures,  in  which  the  pupil  of  the 
Graces  particularly  shines.  This  Flora  which  M.  Paul 
Mantz  thought  was  no  longer  in  existence  smiles  from  the 
walls  of  Versailles  under  a  borrowed  title  which  M.  de 
Nolhac  has  recently  removed.  She  is  fifteen  years  of  age ; 
her  plump  shoulders,  her  arms  and  her  bare  feet  issue  from 
a  white  tunic  across  which  a  piece  of  blue  drapery  is  care- 
lessly thrown.  Seated  on  a  grassy  mound  at  the  foot  of  an 
oak  beside  a  clear  stream,  she  is  weaving  a  crown  of  flowers, 
— a  living  flower  herself;  her  youthful  complexion  is  com- 
posed of  lilacs  and  roses. 

With  this  delightful  work  in  1748,  Nattier' s  fortune 
began  with  the  royal  family ;  he  became  Madame's  painter 


MADAME  HENRIETTE  DE  FRANCE  301 

by  appointment,  and  the  princesses  peopled  his  Olympus ; 
a  provoking  assemblage  of  goddesses  and  nymphs  in  which 
the  eagle  and  the  dove  do  not  know  whom  to  listen  to  first. 
He  said,  not  without  pedantry,  to  Casanova :  "  It  is  a  sort 
of  magic  which  the  god  of  taste  causes  to  flow  from  my 
mind  into  my  brush.  It  is  the  divinity  of  beauty  which  all 
the  world  adores  and  nobody  can  define  because  nobody 
knows  of  what  it  consists.  This  shows  how  fugitive  is 
the  shade  existing  between  ugliness  and  beauty.  Neverthe- 
less, this  shade  is  immense  and  striking  for  those  who  have 
no  knowledge  of  our  art."  He  effaced  the  fugitive  shade 
under  a  red  smile,  and  a  brilliant  gaze,  and  a  play  of  colour 
over  gold  embroidered  stuffs.  An  easy  and  charming  art, 
doubtless,  one  that  gives  the  mind  in  a  touch  of  cosmetic, 
and  happiness  in  the  caress  of  the  brush. 


ELIZABETH  OF  AUSTRIA 
{Franfois  Clouet) 

SAMUEL  ROCHEBLAVE 

WHICH  of  us,  on  visiting  the  Salon  Carre  in  the 
Louvre,  in  which  the  canvases  of  small  dimensions 
engage  sometimes  in  an  unequal  combat  with  their  impos- 
ing neighbours,  has  not  been  nevertheless  seized  and  so  to 
speak  snapped  up  on  the  way  by  a  little  work  of  very  simple 
pretensions  but  very  great  import,  one  of  those  canvases  in 
which  we  devine  instinct,  and  which  is  imbued  with  the 
essence  of  an  epoch  and  the  formula  of  an  art  ?  'The  more 
this  kind  of  "  witness  "  is  reserved,  as  if  careful  to  keep  its 
own  secret,  the  more  anxious  we  are  to  question  it,  capti- 
vated as  we  are  by  its  perplexing  expression,  the  silence  of 
its  lips  and  the  mystery  of  its  gaze.  The  less  it  speaks 
the  more  it  says.  Its  very  muteness  is  eloquent,  and  its 
attitude  has  something  "  representative  "  in  it.  In  fact,  it 
is  in  this  sort  of  picture  that  history  is  incarnated, — history, 
that  is,  seen  in  the  light  of  art,  and  settled,  in  French  style, 
as  though  graven  with  a  few  sober  and  concise  lines. 

Such  is  the  character  of  this  portrait  of  Elizabeth  of  Aus- 
tria, the  wife  of  Charles  IX.,  which,  in  spite  of  importunate 
neighbours,  yet  preserves  in  the  intimacy  of  its  little  frame 
its  value  as  an  inestimable  gem.  Gentle,  fine,  small,  still 
preserving  the  grace  of  youth  in  its  gravity  of  a  young  wife, 


ELIZABETH    OF  AUSTRIA 


ELIZABETH  OF  AUSTRIA  303 

the  daughter  of  Maximilian  II.  destined  for  the  throne  of 
France  suddenly  appeared  at  the  corrupt  court  of  Catherine 
and  Charles  "  like  the  dove  out  of  the  ark."  This  was  in 
1570.  Did  she  indeed  bring  the  olive  branch  with  her? 
For  a  moment,  one  might  believe.  But  the  courtiers  soon 
returned  to  their  vices,  and  statecraft  to  its  crimes.  Two 
years  had  scarcely  elapsed  before  the  tocsin  of  Saint  Ger- 
main 1'Auxerrois  sounded  the  knell  for  the  massacre 
throughout  France,  and  a  king  of  twenty-two  years  of  age 
shot  his  own  subjects  for  sport.  And  thenceforth,  divided 
between  compassion  and  horror,  a  nurse  and  sister  of  charity 
rather  than  the  wife  of  a  consumptive  besieged  with  night- 
mares and  bathed  in  foetid  sweats,  the  daughter  of  Maxi- 
milian prepared  in  the  gloom  those  widow's  weeds  that  she 
put  on  in  1574  and  never  took  off  till  the  day  of  her  death. 
The  mystery  of  this  sad  destiny  already  appeared  in  her 
looks  when  Master  Janet  (for  Francois  Clouet  himself 
signed  the  drawings  of  this  period  with  that  surname), 
seized  and  fixed  in  colour  the  features  of  the  queen  on  the 
morrow  of  her  arrival  in  France  on  the  eve  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, or,  more  exactly,  between  1571  and  1572.  M. 
Henri  Bouchot,  to  whom  we  must  go  concerning  any  ques- 
tion dealing  with  the  crayons  or  portraits  of  the  Sixteenth 
Century,  and  particularly  those  of  Clouet,  has  recently 
thrown  new  lights  on  the  picture  in  the  Salon  Carre  by 
comparing  it  with  an  original  crayon  drawing  dated  1571 
and  preserved  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale.  This  shows 
us  the  young  woman,  frightened  and  timid,  giving,  un- 
willingly doubtless,  a  sulky  sitting  to  the  great  artist  who 


304  ELIZABETH  OF  AUSTRIA 

was  already  very  old  and  who  had  twice  obtained  from  us, 
by  his  art  and  by  royal  decree  his  full  letters  of  naturali- 
zation. Thus  we  have  the  precious  sketch  in  the  Bibliotheque 
Nationale.  In  this,  the  features  alone  are  finished. 

The  remainder  is  only  summarily  indicated,  and  for  cause. 
It  was  a  question  of  catching,  on  the  wing  to  some  extent, 
the  characteristic,  grave  and  childlike  expression  of  this 
charming  irregular  face,  ever  ready  to  hide  itself.  Follow- 
ing his  customary  procedure,  Clouet  the  Elder  sought  to 
establish  once  for  all  in  the  full  truth  of  nature  the  masterly 
sketch  that  was  to  serve  as  a  "  document "  for  painted  por- 
traits and  miniatures,  the  latter  done  afterwards  and  at  his 
leisure.  Therefore,  for  greater  convenience  and  rapidity, 
he  first  made  use  of  the  crayon  for  the  type  and  then 
passed  on  to  the  brush.  Everything  leads  us  to  believe 
with  M.  Bouchot  that  the  portrait  in  the  Salon  Carre  is  the 
worked  up  crayon  of  the  Bibliotkeque  Nationals.  And  in 
fact  the  coif  that  covers  the  head  in  the  crayon  is  the  sole 
marked  difference  noticeable.  The  rest,  ornaments  and 
jewels,  may  well  have  been  painted  without  the  presence  of 
the  model. 

The  painted  portrait  is  none  the  less  a  masterpiece  in 
every  point,  the  equal  of  a  certain  masterpiece  by  Holbein 
that  may  be  admired  close  alongside.  The  French  artist 
has  never  been  more  French,  that  is  to  say,  more  exact, 
true  and  poetic  in  his  own  way  without  effort  than  in  this 
little  picture  painted  from  life  at  a  date  when  the  bad  Ital- 
ianism  of  Fontainebleau  had  already  poisoned  our  national 
school.  Here  we  find  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  a  vigor- 


ELIZABETH  OF  AUSTRIA  305 

ous  observation  formed  after  the  tradition  of  Flanders  by 
his  father  the  first  Janet  and  saturated  with  the  exact  psy- 
chology of  our  native  artists  and  writers,  who  were  dry 
rather  than  redundant  and  less  addicted  to  elegance  than 
probity.  Probity, — but  in  the  service  of  what  superior 
dexterity ! — it  shines  in  this  countenance  all  the  features  of 
which  are  set  down  without  flattery  and  with  the  intention 
of  accenting  their  character.  Look  at  that  brow  that  is  too 
high  and  slightly  bulging  towards  the  roots  of  the  hair  > 
and  those  lips  pressed  together  in  a  kind  of  grimace  that  is 
not  without  a  certain  childish  stupidity  j  and  that  long  nose 
broad  at  the  nostrils — all  so  many  restrictions  of  beauty, 
whilst  the  eyes  alone,  gentle,  observant  and  kind  beneath 
their  still  undecided  shrewdness,  turn  towards  the  corners 
of  the  lids  under  the  very  high,  pure  and  almost  imposing 
arch  of  the  brows.  If  now  we  go  through  the  various 
parts  of  the  costume,  from  the  pearls  of  the  head-dress  to 
the  rings  that  adorn  the  two  crossed  hands,  we  shall  find 
everywhere  the  same  conscientiousness  and  the  same  exacti- 
tude of  disposition.  The  blonde  hair,  raised  and  puffed 
over  the  curve  of  the  temples  above  the  forehead,  is  then 
plaited  and  brought  down  over  the  neck  in  a  net  embroid- 
ered with  pearls  and  fastened  on  the  top  of  the  head  by  a 
gold  ornament.  The  neck  is  confined  in  a  ruff  of  fluted 
lace  beneath  which  runs  a  collar  of  precious  stones,  an  ad- 
mirable piece  of  goldsmith's  work  the  disposition  of  which 
is  repeated  along  the  edging  of  the  bodice,  the  puffed 
chemisette  divided  into  lozenges  by  a  lacing  of  pearls  and 
gold  buttons  is  in  keeping  with  the  magnificence  of  the 


306  ELIZABETH  OF  AUSTRIA 

robe  which  is  all  of  gold  brocade  damasked  with  silver  with 
a  border  of  rubies  and  emeralds.  Finally,  the  sleeves 
slashed  with  white  sewn  with  pearls  support  the  splendour 
of  the  rest  of  the  costume,  the  principal  motive  of  which  is 
the  heavy  pendant  which  is  displayed  on  the  breast  and  ends 
with  an  enormous  fine  pear-shaped  pearl.  Just  below  the 
tapering  hands  resting  on  something  unseen,  show  only  two 
rings  and  look  modest  in  the  midst  of  all  this  richness.  It 
would  not  take  much  for  them  to  be  out  of  place  on  this 
trapping  of  royal  ostentation,  as  doubtless  the  little  queen 
herself  was  in  her  robe  of  a  Valois  wife. 

And  when  we  think  of  the  brilliant  and  untruthful  vari- 
ations which  a  painter  of  the  showy  style  would  not  have 
failed  to  embroider  on  such  a  theme  (such  as  a  Veronese,  a 
Rubens,  or  a  Rigaud,  in  the  succeeding  age),  we  taste  even 
more  keenly  the  intimate  flavour  of  this  little  portrait,  an 
authentic  masterpiece  of  our  national  art;  and  we  repeat 
to  ourselves  Pascal's  so  French  saying :  "  I  want  the 
agreeable  and  the  real,  but  I  want  the  agreeable  itself  to  be 
derived  from  the  real." 


MADAME  VIGEE  LE  BRUN  AND  HER 
DAUGHTER 

(Madame  Vigee  Le  Erur^ 

ANDRE  MICHEL 

IN.the  history  of  portraiture  in  France  there  is  a  period 
between  Nattier  and  Gerard  to  which  belongs  the  amia- 
ble woman  whose  portrait  is  the  subject  of  this  sketch. 
Boucher  having  died  in  the  odour  of  damnation,  Nattier' s 
nymphs  and  goddesses  sought  retreat  in  the  depths  of  the 
flowery  groves, — society  of  the  last  years  of  the  old  regime 
chose  for  its  painter  Elizabeth  Louise  Vigee,  already  cele- 
brated under  that  name  when  by  an  unhappy  marriage  she 
became  Madame  Le  Brun ;  and  the  sympathy  between  the 
painter  and  her  models  being  so  intimate  that  although  she 
did  not  die  until  March  30,  1842,  she  remains  in  French 
art  the  portrait  painter  par  excellence  of  the  Court  of  Marie 
Antoinette.  When  she  suddenly  left  France  at  the  first 
rumblings  of  the  Revolution,  terror-stricken  before  the 
Reign  of  Terror,  it  might  be  said  that  her  work  was  ac- 
complished. Her  truly  important  portraits  belong  to  her 
youth.  If  we  want  to  catch  in  one  attitude  and  look  the 
moral  reflection  of  a  period,  or  to  devine  the  thoughts  or 
dreams  hatched  under  the  complicated  head-dresses  of  the 
great  ladies  who  sheltered  behind  transparent  fichus  of 
linen  sentimental  and  light  hearts,  it  is  Madame  Vigee  Le 
Brun  to  whom  we  must  go.  The  truly  extraordinary 


308     MADAME  VIGEE  LE  BRUN  AND  HER  DAUGHTER 

vogue  which  she  enjoyed  in  her  early  years  continues  in 
posterity  with  a  discreet  and  lasting  glory.  Certainly  we 
should  be  rendering  her  very  ill  service  by  raising  her  on 
an  unusually  high  pedestal  and  in  elevating  her  graceful 
figure  into  a  masterly  attitude.  "Masterpieces"  is  a  very 
big  word  of  which  her  elegant  chroniclers  have  perhaps 
somewhat  too  much  accustomed  us  to  be  prodigal.  She 
would  be  the  first  to  warn  us  with  her  bright  smile  to  speak 
simply  of  her  and  without  the  abuse  of  superlatives.  Since 
she  is  quite  willing  with  an  obliging  liberality  to  give  us  her 
acquaintance  and  admit  us  to  her  intimacy,  let  us  question 
her  discreetly  and  let  her  speak  for  herself.  Thus  we  shall 
find  a  resume  of  her  amiable  talent  and  a  sort  of  applica- 
tion of  her  aesthetics  in  portraiture. 

It  was  in  1789  at  thirty-four  years  of  age  that  she  painted 
this  portrait  for  the  Comte  d*  Angivillers,  "the  director  and 
general  manager  of  the  buildings,  houses,  castles,  parks, 
gardens,  arts  and  manufactures  of  the  King."  Two  years 
before  she  had  painted  another  one  in  which  we  see  her  also 
holding  her  child  in  her  arms,  with  her  hair  scarcely  pow- 
dered and  having  on  her  head  "  a  large  twisted  muslin 
fichu."  Here  she  has  entirely  suppressed  the  powder. 
She  wrote  :  "  I  had  a  horror  of  the  costume  that  women 
then  wore ;  I  made  every  effort  to  render  it  a  little  more 
picturesque  and  I  was  delighted  when  I  gained  the  confi- 
dence of  my  models,  so  that  I  could  drape  them  according 
to  my  own  fancy.  Shawls  were  not  yet  worn ;  but  I 
placed  broad  scarfs  lightly  interlaced  around  the  body  and 
over  the  arms  with  which  I  tried  to  imitate  the  beautiful 


MADAME  VIGE'E  LEBRUN  AND  HER  DAUGHTER 


MADAME  VIGEE  LE  BRUN  AND  HER  DAUGHTER     309 

style  of  the  draperies  of  Raphael  and  Dominichino.  More- 
over, I  could  not  bear  powder.  I  induced  the  beautiful 
Duchesse  de  Grammont-Caderousse  not  to  have  any  put 
on  to  have  her  portrait  painted  j  her  hair  was  as  black  as 
ebony;  I  parted  it  above  the  brow  arranged  in  irregular 
curls.  After  my  sitting,  which  ended  at  the  dinner-hour, 
the  Duchesse  made  no  alteration  in  her  hair  and  went  to 
the  play  in  this  condition.  Such  a  beautiful  woman  should 
set  the  fashion ;  this  mode  slowly  took  and  soon  after- 
wards became  general." 

The  portrait,  which  we  reproduce,  was  executed  a  few 
months  after  that  of  the  Duchesse  de  Grammont;  the 
arrangement  of  the  hair  in  it  is  practically  the  same,  and 
since  agreement  here  was  easy  between  the  painter  and  the 
model,  we  may  seek  in  it  the  exact  expression  of  Madame 
Le  Brun's  intimate  preferences  with  regard  to  the  "  pic- 
turesque." As  we  see  the  influence  of  the  antique  pre- 
ponderates. Since  her  brother  had  read  to  her  the  Voyage 
du  jeune  Anacharsis  en  Greet,  from  which  she  took  the  idea 
of  that  famous  Greek  supper  which  made  so  much  noise 
and  formed  a  pretext  for  so  much  scandal,  Madame  Le 
Brun  had  displayed  an  antique  spirit.  Moreover,  she  knew 
that  M.  d'  Angivillers  to  whom  her  portrait  was  to  be 
offered  had  undertaken  "  to  restore  all  their  dignity  to  the 
arts  as  far  as  possible,"  and  had  prescribed  to  the  pupils  at 
the  Academy  "the  execution  of  figures  after  the  antique." 
Fashion  had  already  returned  to  the  "grand,  severe  and 
antique  taste " ;  the  young  people  and  women  were  for 
the  ancients,  and  Madame  Le  Brun  was  too  much  a  woman 


3 1 0     MADAME  VIGEE  LE  BRUN  AND  HER  DAUGHTER 

of  her  time  not  to  go  with  the  stream.  She  had  a  taste  for 
Vien's  "  simple  and  severe  style,  admired  by  all  true  con- 
noisseurs " ;  she  professed  that  French  painting  should 
engage  itself  u  with  a  style  quite  contrary  to  that  which  has 
caused  it  to  degenerate,  and  that  the  man  responsible  for  its 
decadence,  the  man  of  talent,  the  great  criminal  who  ruined 
it,  is  Boucher,  the  boudoir-painter." 

Therefore,  she  applied  herself  to  acquire  what  she  de- 
sired,— "  that  beautiful  finish  of  execution,"  which  was  one 
of  the  signs  of  the  renascent  orthodoxy.  She  has  still 
many  a  souvenir  of  Greuze  at  the  end  of  her  brush  (see 
u  the  shadow  of  the  irregular  curls  "  and  "  the  straying  of 
the  hair  "  over  the  brow  of  her  portrait) ;  at  Antwerp,  she 
had  seen  Rubens's  Chapeau  de  Faille  in  the  ecstatic  mood 
caused  her  by  that  picture — in  which,  "  what,  for  want  of  a 
better  name,  we  must  call  the  shadows  are  light."  In- 
spired by  this,  she  painted  a  portrait  of  herself  in  a  straw 
hat  with  a  feather  and  a  garland  of  field-flowers,  with  her 
palette  in  her  hand  (engraved  by  Miller,  who,  to  her  great 
chagrin,  made  the  shadows  black  and  heavy) ;  but,  thence- 
forth, it  was  towards  style  that  she  tried  to  direct  her 
efforts  more  and  more;  she  went  so  far  as  to  regret — the 
imprudent  and  ungrateful  woman  ! — being,  so  to  speak,  im- 
prisoned by  her  vogue  and  the  flow  of  orders  in  the  style 
of  portraiture,  and  not  being  able  to  consecrate  her  talent  to 
some  great  "  historical  painting." 

Fortunately  for  her  and  for  us,  she  remained  a  portrait- 
painter  and  a  woman  ;  her  cravings  for  "  grand  art  did  not 
go  so  far  as  to  do  violence  to  her  natural  leanings,  or  to 


MADAME  VIGEE  LE  BRUN  AND  HER  DAUGHTER     31 1 

alter  the  limpidity  of  her  peaceful  and  graceful  talent.  Full 
of  sentiment,  as  befitted  her  day,  she  never  fell  into  silly 
sentimentality  or  insipidity.  In  her  Souvenirs  she  writes  : 
"  I  tried  as  much  as  I  could  to  give  to  the  women  I  painted 
the  attitude  and  expression  of  their  physiognomy ;  those 
who  did  not  have  any,  I  painted  dreaming,  nonchalantly 
leaning."  And  in  her  Advice  to  the  Portrait-Painter: 
"  Before  beginning,  converse  with  your  model,  try  several 
attitudes,  and  select  not  only  the  most  agreeable,  but  that 
which  suits  her  age  and  character,  that  which  may  increase 
the  resemblance.  With  women,  it  is  necessary  to  use 
flattery,  telling  them  that  they  are  beautiful  and  that  they 
have  a  fresh  complexion.  This  puts  them  in  good 
humour,  and  makes  them  pose  with  more  pleasure."  This 
good  grace  with  which  she  sets  herself  to  enter  into  her 
models'  secret  desire  of  pleasing,  we  are  not  astonished  to 
find  again  with  complaisant  smiles  on  those  occasions  when 
a  circle  was  formed  about  her  in  her  promenades  and  at  the 
theatres. — More  than  one  who  was  in  love  with  his  own 
face  came  to  have  his  portrait  painted  by  her,  "  in  the  hope 
of  making  himself  pleasing  to  her."  But  she  added : 
"  My  happiness  demanded  that  I  should  not  yet  know  a 
single  romance.  The  first  one  I  read,  Clarissa  Harlowe, 
which  mightily  interested  me,  I  did  not  read  till  after  my 
marriage;  till  then  I  had  only  read  serious  books,  the 
morality  of  the  Holy  Fathers,  among  others,  of  which  I  did 
not  weary.  For  that  is  all,  except  a  few  of  my  brother's 
class-books.  To  return  to  these  gentlemen,  as  soon  as  I 
saw  that  they  wanted  to  cast  sheep's  eyes  at  me,  I  painted 


3 I 2     MADAME  VIGEE  LE  BRUN  AND  HER  DAUGHTER 

them  with  ridiculous  looks,  which  is  quite  contrary  to  what 
people  consider  painting  should  be.  Then,  at  the  slightest 
movement  that  their  pupils  made  in  my  direction,  I  said  to 
them :  c  I  am  working  on  the  eyes/  That  slightly  dis- 
concerted them,  as  you  may  believe,  and  my  mother,  who 
did  not  leave  me  alone  and  whom  I  had  taken  into  confi- 
dence, laughed  in  her  sleeve." 

When  one  is  thus  constituted,  one  consults  one's  mirror 
without  any  trouble — and,  perhaps,  some  Jansenist  censor 
may  have  reproached  the  bare  arm,  which  is  shown  to  us 
here  with  the  shoulder,  "  for  the  love  of  the  Greek,"  for 
displaying  itself  over  the  form  of  the  little  girl,  just  as  over 
a  cushion,  with  an  abandon  that  is  not  sufficiently  maternal. 
However,  it  would  suffice  to  look  at  that  bright  and  frank 
face,  to  show  that  u  Le  Brun  de  la  Beaute,"  the  painter  and 
the  model,  as  La  Harpe  "  sang,"  had  no  other  coquetry 
than  that  which  their  very  beauty  imposes  on  pretty 
women. 

Everything  is  healthy  in  her.  On  close  examination  one 
would  find  something  better  than  carelessness,  a  fund  of 
watchfulness  in  her  delicate  face.  Life  certainly  has  not 
spared  her  deep  griefs ;  she  has  been  as  badly  married  as  an 
honest  woman  can  be,  but  she  has  preserved  intact  the 
treasure  of  good  humour  and  gaiety  that  laughs  in  her  eyes ; 
she  has  painted  "  with  fury,"  and  that  "  divine  passion  "  of 
her  beloved  painting  has  been  a  refuge  and  a  consolation  to 
her  in  her  hours  of  difficulty.  In  spite  of  her  mortifica- 
tions, she  has  always  loved  life  and  the  world,  as  these  were 
understood  and  enjoyed  before  the  terrible  year  1789.  She 


MADAME  VIGEE  LE  BRUN  AND  HER  DAUGHTER     313 

has  enjoyed  all  her  successes  as  a  woman  and  an  artist ;  and 
the  few  black  or  melancholy  moments  that  she  may  have 
known  let  us  not  pity  any  more  than  she  allowed  herself  to 
do. 

She  also  took  pleasure  in  her  maternity.  She  has  spoken 
of  that  daughter  whom  she  clasps  in  her  arms  and  of  "  her 
great  blue  eyes  "  with  true  tenderness.  And  it  is  precisely 
from  that  daughter, — married  against  her  will — and,  un- 
grateful as  it  seems,  that  were  to  come  to  her,  her  most 
poignant  griefs,  those  against  which  her  habitual  optimism 
found  her  least  armed.  If,  on  looking  at  her  closely,  you 
notice  in  the  depths  of  her  gaze,  a  sort  of  welling  sadness, 
that  is,  perhaps,  one  of  those  presentiments  which  in  full 
joyousness  cloud  the  brow  of  anxious  mothers.  It  is,  per- 
haps, also,  the  regret  for  all  that  she  is  going  to  leave ;  for 
already  the  storm  is  rumbling  in  the  distance ;  yesterday,  on 
the  Longchamp  promenade,  she  heard  terrifying  talk ;  "  the 
populace  has  insulted  in  the  most  frightful  manner  the  peo- 
ple who  were  driving  in  their  carriages ;  "  and  scoundrels 
"  threw  sulphur  into  her  cellar."  She  is  marked  as  a  friend 
of  the  Austrian  and  of  Calonne.  The  first  emigree,  she  is 
about  to  jump  disguised  into  a  diligence  and  abandon  every- 
thing she  loves  the  most,  that  Paris  where  she  was  so  highly 
acclaimed,  and  that  brilliant  world  which  is  about  to  end — 
and,  in  default  of  a  country,  seek  places  where  the  arts 
flourish  and  where  kind  hearts  reign. 


ELIZABETH,  QUEEN  OF  BOHEMIA 

(Hontborst) 

WILLIAM  CHAMBERS  LEFROY 

^ERARD  HONTHORST  was  born  at  Utrecht  in 
VJ  1592,  and  studied  first  under  Abraham  Bloemaert, 
and  then  in  Italy  under  Michael  Angelo  da  Caravaggio, 
"  to  whose  style,"  says  Kugler,  "  he  for  the  most  part  ad- 
hered." 

On  5th  April,  1628,  he  came  to  England,  and  in  the 
same  year  painted  the  Family  of  Filliers,  Duke  of  Bucking- 
ham, now  at  Hampton  Court.  The  following  August  the 
Duke  was  assassinated  by  Felton.  This  picture  is  consid- 
ered a  good  specimen  of  the  artist;  and  though  there  is 
some  coarse  work  especially  in  the  flesh-tints,  the  chiaros- 
curo has  his  characteristic  strength.  Honthorst's  bold  and 
skilful  management  of  light  and  shade,  and  love  of  effects 
of  artificial  illumination,  are  well  known.  He  is  repre- 
sented by  works  of  some  importance  at  Hampton  Court ; 
and  though  there  is  nothing  from  his  hand  in  the  National 
Gallery,  and  only  four  or  five  specimens  in  the  National 
Portrait  Gallery,  his  style  should  be  familiar  to  Englishmen 
when  they  meet  with  it  elsewhere. 

Of  the  remaining  works  by  Honthorst  at  Hampton 
Court  a  Joseph  and  Mary  by  Lamplight,  is  evidently  a  very 
curious  and  clever  picture,  but  is  hung  so  high  as  to  be 


ELIZABETH,   QUEEN  OF  BOHEMIA 


ELIZABETH,  QUEEN  OF  BOHEMIA  315 

hardly  visible.  This  and  Singing  by  Candlelight  are  ex- 
amples of  the  style  for  which  Honthorst  became  famous  in 
Italy,  before  his  English  period,  and  which  earned  him  the 
title  of  "Gherardo  dalle  Notti."  No.  810  is  the  large 
picture  of  the  King  and  ghieen  of  Bohemia^  fifteen  feet  high 
by  twenty-two  feet  wide.  It  was  painted  at  Utrecht,  1628 
to  1630,  and  is  wrongly  described  by  Walpole  as  an  em- 
blematic picture  of  Charles  I.  and  his  Queen.  At  page  167 
of  Charles's  catalogue  it  is  entered  as  "  a  very  large  piece, 
which  was  painted  by  Honthorst;  in  the  said  piece  is 
painted  the  King  and  Queen  of  Bohemia  in  the  clouds  and 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham  coming  to  present  to  the  King 
the  seven  Liberal  Sciences  under  the  persons  of  their  chil- 
dren." The  King  and  Queen,  however,  are  so  very  de- 
cidedly "  in  the  clouds,"  that  I  am  not  able  to  speak  to 
their  identity  with  the  confidence  of  personal  observation. 
This  appears  not  to  have  been  the  only  fanciful  present- 
ment of  Elizabeth  by  her  favourite  painter,  for  Lady 
Theresa  Lewis  mentions  somewhat  enigmatically,  that  the 
heads  of  her  Majesty  and  Lord  Craven  were  painted  by 
Honthorst  "  on  the  design  of  Titian's  Venus  and  Adonis  in 
the  National  Gallery."  * 

A  very  interesting  full-length  of  Elizabeth,  over  the  fire- 
place in  the  King's  Audience  Chamber  at  Hampton  Court, 
shows  the  almost  golden  glow  in  her  dark  hair,  and  the 
sweetness  of  her  tremulous  lips  and  drooping  eyelids.  The 
browns  and  reds  of  the  picture  are  not  set  off  to  advantage  by 

1  Lives  of  the  Friends  and  Contemporaries  of  Lord  Chancellor  Claren- 
don. 


316  ELIZABETH,  QUEEN  OF  BOHEMIA 

its  wooden  frame.  In  the  left-hand  corner  are  the  words : 
u  Intra  Fortunes  Sortem,  Extra  Imperium "  ;  and  another 
inscription  on  paper  at  the  back  helps  to  identify  this  with 
the  portrait  mentioned  in  Sir  Henry  Wotton's  will :  "  I 
leave  to  the  most  hopeful  Prince l  the  picture  of  the  elected 
and  crowned  Queen  of  Bohemia,  his  aunt,  of  clear  and  re- 
splendent virtues  through  the  clouds  of  her  fortune." 

Portraits  similar  to  the  one  here  reproduced  are  at  Oxford 
House,  Wimbledon,  in  the  collection  formed  by  the  late 
Mr.  Neuenhuys,  and  at  Combe  Abbey.  The  former  col- 
lection includes  a  companion  portrait  of  Frederick,  Elector 
or  King,  likewise  attributed  to  Honthorst. 

Not  only  did  Elizabeth  herself  receive  lessons  from  her 
favourite  painter,  but  he  also  taught  several  of  her  children, 
and  especially  the  Princesses  Sophia  and  Louisa  Hollandina, 
— the  former  afterwards  the  mother  of  George  I.,  and  the 
latter  Abbess  of  Maubuisson. 

Let  us  pause  a  moment  to  note  a  few  among  the  many 
important  genealogical  facts  which  centre  in  Elizabeth  of 
Bohemia.  She  was,  to  go  no  farther,  the  grand-daughter 
of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  and  the  grand-mother  of  George 
I.,  the  daughter  of  James  I.  and  mother  of  Prince  Rupert, 
the  sister  of  Charles  I.,  the  aunt  of  Charles  II.  and  James 
II.  Do  we  always  realize  that  George  I.  was  Prince 
Rupert's  nephew  ? 

In  the  second  compartment  of  the  upper  gallery  of  the 
National  Collection  there  is  a  group  of  portraits  of  this 
family,  viz.,  three  of  James  I.,  all  more  or  less  repulsive; 
» Afterwards  Charles  II. 


ELIZABETH,  QUEEN  OF  BOHEMIA  317 

one  of  his  wife,  Anne  of  Denmark,  a  showy  and  not  very 
refined-looking  person ;  one  of  Prince  Henry,  a  poor  pic- 
ture by  an  unknown  artist ;  and  one  by  Mireveldt  of 
Elizabeth  herself.  In  the  next  compartment  are  the  por- 
traits by  Honthorst  of  Elizabeth,  the  Queen,  and  Eliza- 
beth, the  Princess  Palatine,  her  daughter.  Near  them 
is  Prince  Rupert,  by  Lely,  and  a  little  farther  again  the 
Electress  Sophia,  "  painted  in  the  school  of  Honthorst." 
The  family  likeness  in  the  Queen  of  Bohemia  and  her  two 
daughters  is  very  strong,  but  we  are  not  reminded  either 
of  King  James  or  King  George. 

The  main  facts  in  the  life  of  Elizabeth  are  well  known. 
Her  happy  girlish  days  among  the  birds  and  beasts  and 
flowers  at  Combe  Abbey  are  recalled  by  the  traditional 
title  of  a  certain  curious  picture  at  Woburn  Abbey,  in 
which  a  girl  in  a  white  dress  is  represented  with  a  mackaw 
on  a  stand  at  her  left  shoulder,  and  a  parrot  at  her  right, 
two  little  love  birds  in  her  hand,  a  monkey  at  one  foot  and 
a  dog  at  the  other.  It  has,  however,  been  conjectured, 
both  from  the  details  of  costume  and  the  fairness  of  the 
hair,  that  the  picture  represents  the  Lady  Arabella  Stuart. 
Be  this  as  it  may,  we  know  that  Elizabeth  appropriated  as 
a  special  domain  a  certain  small  island  at  Combe  Abbey, 
and  there  established  a  sort  of  zoological  garden  of  her 
own  in  which  she  much  delighted.  Miss  Strickland,  in 
her  Lives  of  Scottish  Queens  and  English  Princesses^  gives  a 
curious  extract  from  Lord  Harrington's  accounts  as  to 
charges  in  relation  to  his  royal  pupil.  "  For  cotton  to  make 
her  monkey's  beds,  and  for  joiners  who  made  her  parrot- 


318  ELIZABETH,  QUEEN  OF  BOHEMIA 

cages,  and  for  shearing  her  great  rough  dog,  and  for  the 
sustenance  of  an  Irish  wolf-hound,  all  belonging  to  her 
Grace."  When  this  young  lady  was  nine,  the  Gunpowder 
conspirators  plotted  to  seize  her  and  make  her  queen ;  and 
when  she  was  thirteen,  the  father  of  Gustavus  Adolphus 
sent  an  embassy  to  ask  her  hand  in  marriage  for  the  future 
hero,  but  in  vain.  For  the  present  she  must  live  on  with 
her  pets  and  her  girl  companions,  visited  sometimes  by  her 
favourite  brother,  Prince  Henry,  and  with  no  deeper  cause 
of  grief  than  an  occasional  well-merited  rebuke  for  ex- 
travagance from  her  excellent  guardian. 

The  death  of  Prince  Henry  at  St.  James's  Palace  in 
1612  was,  probably,  the  first  great  sorrow  of  his  sister's 
life.  Her  efforts  to  obtain  access,  even  in  disguise,  to  his 
infected  chamber,  were  very  characteristic.  A  thin  and 
safe  existence,  without  love  or  loss,  was  neither  her  desire 
nor  her  destiny. 

A  few  months  later,  Elizabeth  and  the  Elector  Frederick 
were  married  at  Whitehall,  the  first  royal  couple  joined  by 
the  English  rite.  Anne  of  Denmark  may  have  sowed  the 
seeds  of  more  evil  than  she  dreamed  of  by  the  contempt 
with  which  she  habitually  spoke  of  this  union  with  a 
mere  Palsgrave ;  and  the  popular  feeling  was  probably  re- 
flected in  Ben  Jonson's  uncourtly  impromptu  — 

"  Our  King  and  Queen  the  Lord  God  blesse, 
The  Paltzgrave  and  the  Lady  Besse." 

And  so  "  The  Lady  Besse  "  passed  away  to  captivate  with 
sweet  smiles,  and  confound  by  daring  horsemanship,  the 


ELIZABETH,  QUEEN  OF  BOHEMIA  319 

loyal  inhabitants  of  Heidelberg.  In  the  intervals  of  trouble 
and  sport  she  wrote  a  hymn  which  has  been  preserved ; 
but  she  will  be  better  remembered  as  the  cause  of  poetry 
in  others. 

For  before  Honthorst  painted  her,  or  an  army  adored 
her  as  their  "  Queen  of  Hearts,"  or  Duke  Christian  of 
Brunswick  wore  her  glove  in  his  helmet,  Sir  Henry 
Wotton  wrote  of  her,  as  we  all  know,  but  can  afford  to 
be  reminded  : — 

"  Yon  meaner  beauties  of  the  night 

That  poorly  satisfy  our  eyes 
More  by  your  number  than  your  light, 
Yon  common  people  of  the  skies, 
Where  are  you  when  the  sun  shall  rise  ? 

"  Yon  curious  chanters  of  the  wood ; 

That  warble  forth  dame  Nature's  lays, 
Thinking  your  voices  understood 

By  your  weak  accents,  what's  your  praise 
When  Philomel  her  voice  shall  raise  ? 

"  Yon  violets  that  first  appear, 

By  your  pure  purple  mantles  known, 
Like  the  proud  virgins  of  the  year, 
As  if  the  spring  were  all  your  own, 
What  are  you  when  the  rose  is  blown  ? 

"  So  when  my  mistress  shall  be  seen, 
In  form  and  beauty  of  her  mind, 
By  virtue  first,  then  choice,  a  Queen ; 
Tell  me  if  she  were  not  designed 
TV  eclipse  and  glory  of  her  kind  ?  " 


320  ELIZABETH,  QUEEN  OF  BOHEMIA 

According  to  most  historians,  including  Mr.  Gardiner, 
when  the  fatal  offer  of  the  crown  of  Bohemia  was  made 
to  Frederick,  he  was  urged  by  the  pride  and  ambition  of 
his  wife  to  accept  it.  Ranke,  however,  declares  that  this 
is  by  no  means  proved.  It  was,  in  any  case,  a  false  step, 
followed  by  nothing  but  misfortune.  The  Elector  was  no 
leader  of  men,  and  his  royal  father-in-law,  on  whose  aid 
Bohemia  counted,  proved  but  a  broken  reed. 

Such,  however,  was  the  personal  devotion  inspired  by 
Elizabeth  that  James  advised,  or  commanded,  the  postpone- 
ment of  her  intended  visit  to  England.  u  It  was  reserved  for 
the  young  lawyers  of  the  Middle  Temple  to  give  utterance 
to  the  feelings  which  the  preachers  now  hardly  dared  to 
mutter.  At  their  Christmas  supper,  one  of  them,  we  are 
told,  c  took  a  cup  of  wine  in  one  hand,  and  held  his  drawn 
sword  in  the  other,  and  so  began  a  health  to  the  distressed 
Lady  Elizabeth;  and  having  drunk,  kissed  the  sword,  and 
laying  his  hand  upon  it,  took  an  oath  to  live  and  die  in  her 
service ;  then  delivered  the  cup  and  sword  to  the  next,  and 
so  the  health  and  ceremony  went  round.'  ' 

At  thirty-six  Elizabeth  was  left  a  widow.  The  chival- 
rous devotion  of  Lord  Craven  soothed  and  shielded  the  later 
years  of  her  life ;  but  we  are  not,  I  think,  obliged  to  be- 
lieve that  they  were  secretly  married.  In  1661,  she  came 
to  London,  where  in  less  than  a  year  she  died.  Evelyn  tells 
us  how  she  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  how  the 
"  night  of  her  burial  fell  such  a  storm  of  hail,  thunder,  and 
lightning,  as  was  never  seen  the  like." 

When  our  portrait  was  painted  she  was  forty-six,  and  had 


ELIZABETH,  QUEEN  OF  BOHEMIA  321 

been  ten  years  a  widow.  Probably  she  was  at  that  time 
still  given  to  hunting  and  shooting,  as  well  as  to  the  bring- 
ing up  of  the  survivors  of  her  thirteen  children,  and  the 
society  of  learned  men. 

In  the  original  of  our  illustration  the  square-cut  dress  is 
black  with  white  lace.  The  ornaments  are  pearls.  The 
hair  and  eyes  are  quite  dark  and  the  complexion  pale.  It  is 
a  face  that  might  reveal  to  the  merest  stranger  that  she  was 
a  Stuart,  that  she  had  been  beautiful,  that  she  had  been 
unhappy;  and  this  is  more,  I  think,  than  could  be  as 
clearly  read  in  any  known  portrait  of  her  ill-starred  grand- 
mother, the  Queen  of  Scots. 


THE  COUNTESS  DE  GRAMMONT 

(Sir  Peter  Lely] 

MRS.  JAMESON 

SIR  GEORGE  HAMILTON,  fourth  son  of  James, 
first  Earl  of  Abercorn,  after  distinguishing  himself 
greatly  in  the  civil  wars,  retired  to  France  on  the  death  of 
the  King,  his  master.  He  resided  abroad  for  several  years, 
had  a  command  in  the  French  army,  and  in  France  several 
of  his  children  were  born  and  most  of  them  educated,  which 
accounts  for  the  predilection  they  afterwards  showed  for  that 
country.  At  the  Restoration,  Sir  George  Hamilton  re- 
turned to  England  with  a  numerous  family  of  gallant  sons 
and  lovely  daughters,  among  them  Elizabeth  Hamilton,  his 
eldest  daughter,  who  being  then  just  of  an  age  to  be  intro- 
duced at  court,  soon  became  one  of  its  principal  ornaments. 
She  appeared  in  that  gay  and  splendid  circle  with  many 
advantages.  She  was  of  noble  descent,  allied  to  the  most 
illustrious  families  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland ;  she 
was  the  niece  of  the  Duke  of  Ormond,  her  mother  being 
the  sister  of  that  great  nobleman ;  her  eldest  brother  was 
groom  of  the  bedchamber,  and  a  special  favourite  of  the 
King ;  her  two  younger  brothers  were  distinguished  among 
the  brave  and  gay  :  she  herself  united  to  a  most  captivat- 
ing person  and  manner  such  accomplishments  as  few  women 
of  her  time  possessed,  and  which  she  had  cultivated  during 


THE  COUNTESS  DE  GRAMMONT 


THE  COUNTESS  DE  GRAMMONT       323 

her  father's  exile.  It  does  not  appear  that  Miss  Hamilton 
accepted  any  ostensible  office  near  the  person  of  the  Queen 
or  the  Duchess  of  York ;  but  she  was  soon  distinguished  by 
the  favour  of  both,  more  particularly  by  that  of  the  Duchess ; 
and  was  habitually  included  in  their  most  select  circles,  as 
well  as  in  all  their  balls,  masques,  banquets  and  public 
festivities  of  the  Court. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  De  Grammont  first  met  her ;  but 
it  was  long  after  his  marriage  that  he  dictated  to  her  brother 
Anthony  that  enchanting  description  of  her  which  appears 
in  his  Memoirs.  The  lover-like  feeling  which  breathes 
through  the  whole — the  beauty,  delicacy  and  individuality 
of  the  portrait  show  that  De  Grammont,  with  all  his  fri- 
volity and  inconstancy,  still  remembered  with  tenderness, 
after  a  union  of  twenty  years,  the  charms  which  had  first 
touched  and  fixed  his  volatile  heart. 

She  was  then  just  arrived  at  that  age  when  the  budding 
girl  expands  into  the  woman :  her  figure  was  tall,  rather 
full,  and  elegantly  formed ;  and  to  borrow  Lord  Herbert's 
beautiful  expression,  "  varied  itself  into  every  grace 
that  can  belong  either  to  rest  or  motion."  She  had  the 
finest  neck  and  loveliest  hand  and  arm  in  the  world : 
her  forehead  was  fair  and  open  ;  her  hair  dark  and  luxuriant, 
always  arranged  with  the  most  exquisite  taste,  but  with  an 
air  of  natural  and  picturesque  simplicity,  which  meaner 
beauties  in  vain  essayed  to  copy ;  her  complexion,  at  a  time 
when  the  use  of  paint  was  universal,  owed  nothing  to  art ; 
her  eyes  were  not  large,  but  sparkling  and  full  of  expres- 
sion j  her  mouth,  though  not  a  little  haughtiness  is  implied 


324  THE  COUNTESS  DE  GRAMMONT 

in  the  curve  of  the  under  lip,  was  charming  and  the  con- 
tour of  her  face  perfect. 

De  Grammont  had  hitherto  received  few  repulses,  but 
"  heureux  sans  etre  aime"  he  began  to  be  weary  of  pursuing 
conquests  of  little  worth.  Miss  Hamilton  was  something 
new,  something  different  from  anything  he  had  yet  encoun- 
tered in  the  form  of  woman.  He  soon  perceived  that  the 
stratagems  he  had  hitherto  found  all-prevailing — flattery 
and  billet  doux^  French  fans  and  gants  de  Martial1 — would 
be  entirely  misplaced  in  his  present  pursuit :  he  laid  aside 
his  usual  methods  of  proceeding,  and,  all  his  powers  of 
captivating  called  forth  by  a  real  and  deep  attachment,  he 
bent  his  whole  soul  to  please,  and  he  succeeded. 

The  Countess  de  Grammont  spent  the  rest  of  her  life  at 
the  French  court.  Her  beauty  and  elegance  charmed  the 
King,  yet  she  did  not  universally  please  :  Madame  de  Main- 
tenon  thought  her  "plus  agreable  qit  aimable"  perhaps  be- 
cause she  could  amuse  with  her  lively  wit,  she  would  not 
stoop  to  flatter.  When  Madame  de  Caylus  called  her 
"Anglaise  insupportable"  she  probably  spoke  in  the  character 
of  a  Frenchwoman  and  a  rival  wit  and  beauty.  Madame 
de  Grammont,  soon  after  her  arrival  in  France,  was  ap- 
pointed Dame  du  Palais  at  Versailles ;  and,  in  a  few  years 
afterwards  De  Grammont  became,  by  the  death  of  his  elder 
brother,  one  of  the  richest  and  most  powerful  of  the  noblesse. 

They    appear   to    have    lived    together   on    easy    terms. 

1  Martial  was  a  famous  Parisian  glove-maker  of  that  time.  "Est-ce  que 
Martial  fait  les  epigrammes  aussi  bien  que  les  gants  ?  "  asks  Moliere's 
Comtesse  d'  Escarbagnas,  in  allusion  to  his  Latin  namesake. 


THE  COUNTESS  DE  GRAMMONT       325 

Towards  the  latter  part  of  her  life,  the  Countess  de  Gram- 
mont  became  very  devout,  and  was  extremely  scandalized 
by  her  husband's  epicurism  and  infidelity. 

The  portrait  of  her  is  from  the  picture  by  Sir  Peter  Lely. 
We  are  told  that,  at  the  time  Lely  was  enchanted  with  his 
subject,  and  every  one  considered  it  as  the  finest  effort  of 
his  pencil,  both  as  a  painting  and  a  resemblance.  The 
dignified  attitude  and  elegant  turn  of  the  head,  are  well 
befitting  her  who  was  "  grande  et  graciewt  dans  le  moindre 
de  ses  mouvemens  "  ;  we  have  here  u  le  petit  nez  delicate"  the 
fine  contour  of  face,  the  lovely  bust,  the  open  expansive 
brow,  and  the  lips,  ripe,  rich,  and  breathing  sweets — at 
least  to  the  imagination.  A  few  pearls  are  negligently 
interwoven  among  her  luxuriant  tresses,  as  if  on  purpose 
to  recall  Crashaw's  beautiful  compliment  to  his  mistress : — 

"  Tresses  that  wear 

Jewels  but  to  declare 
How  much  themselves  more  precious  are. 

Each  ruby  there, 

Or  pearl,  that  dare  appear, 
Be  its  own  blush, — be  its  own  tear." 

The  countenance  has  infinitely  more  spirit  and  intellect 
than  Sir  Peter  Lely's  beauties  in  general  exhibit;  and 
though  perhaps  a  little  too  proud  and  elevated  in  its  pres- 
ent expression,  it  must  have  been,  when  brightened  into 
smiles,  or  softened  with  affection,  exquisitely  bewitching. 
The  neck  and  throat  are  beautifully  painted,  the  drapery  is 
grand  and  well-disposed,  and  the  background  has  a  rich  and 
deep  tone  of  colour,  finely  relieving  the  figure. 


326  THE  COUNTESS  DE  GRAMMONT 

There  is  a  slight  defect  in  the  drawing  of  the  right  arm. 
Lely  did  not,  like  Van  Dyck,  paint  his  hands  and  arms 
from  nature :  they  are  in  general  all  alike,  pretty  and  deli- 
cate, but  destitute  of  individual  character,  and  often  ill- 
drawn.  In  the  present  instance,  this  is  the  more  to  be 
regretted,  because  Miss  Hamilton,  among  her  other  perfec- 
tions, was  celebrated  for  the  matchless  beauty  of  her  hand 
and  arm. 


THE  COUNTESS  DE  GRAMMONT 
(Sir  Peter  Lely) 

WILLIAM  SHARP 

ALAS  !  there  were  so  many  queens  of  beauty  on  the 
walls,  and  yet  my  heart  was  not  lost  to  one  of  them  ! 
Then  I  remembered  a  favourite  couplet,  by  Campion, 

"  Beauty  must  be  scorned  in  none 
Though  but  truly  served  in  one  " — 

and,  having  thought  of  and  quoted  that  sweet  signer  found 
I  had  to  go  right  through  three  stanzas  of  his,  memorable 
even  in  the  ever-new  wealth  of  Elizabethan  love-songs. 

"  Give  beauty  all  her  right ! 

She's  not  to  one  form  tied ; 
Each  shape  yields  fair  delight, 
Where  her  perfections  bide  : 
Helen,  I  grant,  might  pleasing  be, 
And  Ros'mond  was  as  sweet  as  she. 

"  Some  the  quick  eye  commends, 

Some  swelling  lips  and  red ; 
Pale  looks  have  many  friends, 

Through  sacred  sweetness  bred ; 
Meadows  have  flowers  that  pleasures  move, 
Though  roses  are  the  flowers  of  love. 


328  THE  COUNTESS  DE  GRAMMONT 

"  Free  beauty  is  not  bound 

To  one  unmoved  clime  ; 
She  visits  every  ground, 

And  favours  every  time. 
Let  the  old  lords  with  mine  compare ; 
My  Sovereign  is  as  sweet  as  fair." 

There:  all  that  is  to  be  said  about  Fair  Women,  or  the 
Beauty  of  Woman,  is  compressed  into  six  short  lines. 
This  intangible  beauty  is  a  citizen  of  the  world,  and  has 
her  home  in  Cathay  as  well  as  Europe,  no  one  age  claims 
her,  and  Helen  of  Troy  takes  hands  with  Aspasia,  and  they 
smile  across  the  years  to  Lucrezia  Borgia  and  Diane  de 
Poitiers,  who,  looking  forward,  see  the  lovely  light  reflected 
in  la  belle  Hamilton,  and  so  down  to  our  own  day.  And 
then,  once  more,  Eve  individualized  for  ever  and  ever; 
a  challenge  to  all  the  world  to  bring  forward  one  sweeter 
and  fairer  than  "  my  Sovereign." 

The  familiar  canvas  was  in  delightful  company.  Her 
sisters — in  Lely  were  there  :  the  Princess  Mary,  afterwards 
Queen  Mary  II.,  as  Diana  ;  the  winsome  Diana  Kirke,  the 
second  wife  of  Aubrey  de  Vere,  twentieth  and  last  Earl  of 
Oxford,  a  Fair  Woman  whom  personally  I  much  preferred 
to  her  famous  rival;  Nell  Gwynne,  the  bonnie  free-lance; 
the  charming  but  not  rigorously  virtuous  Mrs.  Jane  Mid- 
dleton,  whose  relative,  John  Evelyn,  has  chronicled  her 
u  famous  and  indeed  incomparable  beauty,"  and  some  of 
whose  doings  are  set  forth  in  Anthony  Hamilton's  cele- 
brated Grammont's  Memoirs;  and  the  Lady  Barbara  Gran- 
dison,  who  married  the  Earl  of  Castlemaine,  found  favour 


THE  COUNTESS  DE  GRAMMONT       329 

in  the  eyes  of  Charles  II.  (who  created  her  Duchess  of 
Cleveland),  and  was  daring  enough  to  wed  once  more  a 
commoner,  though,  to  be  sure,  he  was  the  fashionable 
Adonis  of  his  day,  "  Beau  "  Fielding. 

Every  one  knows  La  Belle  Hamilton,  the  finest  of  the 
Hampton  Court  Beauties.  In  common  with  Nell  Gwynne 
and  the  Duchess  of  Cleveland  this  masterpiece  of  Lely's 
belongs  to  the  Queen.  I  wonder  how  the  gossipy  Anthony 
Hamilton  would  have  moralized  if  he  had  been  able  to 
foresee  this  whim  of  Destiny.  The  three  ladies  themselves 
might  have  been  more  surprised  still,  if  their  thoughts  could 
cross  the  gulf  that  separates  the  Stuart  court  from  the  Vic- 
torian. Some  readers  will  recall  the  saying  "  The  Count 
de  Grammont's  short  memory  !  "  When  that  courtier  left 
England  he  was  followed  and  confronted  by  the  brothers  of 
"la  belle  Hamilton,"  who,  with  drawn  swords,  asked  him 
if  he  had  not  forgotten  something.  "  True,  true,"  replied 
the  Count :  who  forthwith  retraced  his  steps  and,  as  a 
chronicler  has  it,  "  repaired  the  lapse  by  making  the  young 
lady  Countess  of  Grammont."  As  a  painting,  this  superb 
work  is  not  only  the  highest  achievement  of  Lely,  but 
touches  the  high-water  level  of  Lely's  prototype  Van  Dyck. 
Even  the  finest  of  the  adjacent  canvases  of  the  great  Sir 
Anthony,  the  Duchesse  de  Croy,  and  in  particular,  Dorothy 
Sidney,  do  not  surpass  this  beautiful  picture. 

But  while  it  is  easy  to  understand  how  Elizabeth  Ham- 
ilton became  "  la  belle  Hamilton  "  at  the  Court  of  Charles 
II.,  and  had  more  offers  of  marriage  than  the  number  of 
years  she  had  lived,  till,  in  the  third  year  of  the  Restoration, 


330  THE  COUNTESS  DE  QRAMMONT 

she  gave  her  hand  to  the  celebrated  wit  and  courtier,  the 
Comte  Philiberte  de  Grammont,  most  of  us  doubtless  would 
find  it  difficult  to  discover  that  "  fundamental  charm  "  we 
hoped  to  find.  I  could  believe  all  that  her  brother  Anthony 
could  tell  of  her  beauty  and  winsomeness,  and  have  no 
doubt  that  Count  Philibert  was  a  very  lucky  man ;  but,  for 
myself,  I  realized  that  even  had  I  been  a  member  of  that 
wicked,  laughing,  delightful,  reprehensible  Carolan  Court, 
and  a  favourite  of  fortune  in  the  matter  of  advantages,  I 
doubt  if  I  would  have  been  one  of  the  five-and-twenty 
suitors  of  "  la  belle  Hamilton."  Alas,  there  is  yet  another 
charm  which  allures  men  when  Beauty  is  only  an  impossi- 
ble star;  in  the  words  of  the  anonymous  poet  of  Tibbie 
Fowler  of  the  Glen, 

t(  Gin  a  lass  be  e'er  sae  black, 

An'  she  hae  the  pennysiller, 
Set  her  up  on  Tinto  tap, 

The  win'  'ill  blaw  a  man  'till  her." 

It  was  not  the  fair  Elizabeth's  "  pennysiller,"  however, 
that  was  the  attraction,  though  she  did  have  what  the  Scots 
slyly  call  "  advantages." 

Nevertheless,  it  is  clear  she  must  have  in  her  beauty 
something  that  appeals  to  many  minds  and  in  different 
epochs.  The  fastidious  nobles  and  wits  of  the  Restoration 
admired  her;  Sir  Peter  Lely  expended  his  highest  powers 
in  painting  her ;  his  portrait  of  her  has  long  been  the  gem 
of  the  famous  series  known  as  "  the  Windsor  Beauties," 
and  at  Hampton  Court  she  is  ever  one  of  the  most  popular 
of  the  ladies  of  the  Stuart  regime. 


POPE  JULIUS  II 

(Raphael) 

H.   KNACKFUSS 

u  T  TOW  liberal  and  kindly  heaven  shows  itself  some- 
JL  JL  times  in  bestowing  on  a  single  person  the  infinite 
store  of  its  treasures  and  all  those  graces  and  rarest  gifts 
which  it  is  wont  to  distribute  among  many  individuals  in  a 
long  space  of  time,  may  be  clearly  seen  in  the  no  less  ex- 
cellent than  gracious  Raphael  Sanzio  of  Urbino,  who  was 
by  nature  endowed  with  all  that  modesty  and  kindness 
which  may  sometimes  be  seen  in  those  who  beyond  others 
have  added  to  a  refined  and  gentle  nature  the  beautiful  orna- 
ment of  a  charming  courtesy,  which  is  wont  to  show  itself 
ever  sweet  and  pleasant  to  all  kinds  of  persons  and  in  all 
manners  of  things.  He  was  nature's  gift  to  the  world, 
when,  vanquished  by  art  in  the  hands  of  Michelangelo 
Buonarroti,  she  was  willing  in  Raphael  to  be  vanquished  by 
art  and  manners  at  once." 

With  these  words  Giorgio  Vasari,  who  wrote  in  the 
Sixteenth  Century  the  lives  of  famous  Italian  artists  from 
Cimabue  to  himself,  begins  the  life  of  the  immortal  master, 
who  brought  the  art  of  the  Italian  Renaissance  to  its  utmost 
perfection,  and  who  shares  with  the  giant  Michel-angelo 
this  supreme  glory,  that  his  works,  like  the  creations  of  clas- 
sical antiquity,  count  with  all  posterity  as  unsurpassable. 
Raffaello  Santi  (or  Sanzio)  first  beheld  the  light  of  day 


33*  POPE  JULIUS  n 

on  Good  Friday  (i8th  March)  in  the  year  1483.  His 
native  place,  Urbino,  situated  on  the  north-east  side  of  the 
Apennines  in  the  Marches  of  Ancona,  near  the  frontiers  of 
Tuscany  and  Umbria,  was  the  capital  of  a  small  Duchy, 
which  belonged  to  the  valiant  and  art-loving  family  of 
Montefeltro.  Raphael's  father,  Giovanni  Santi,  was  a  painter 
of  repute,  who  painted  pictures  of  saints  full  of  thought- 
fulness  and  reverence.  A  fresco  painted  by  Giovanni  Santi 
in  the  house,  still  standing,  in  which  Raphael  was  born, 
representing  the  Madonna  with  the  child  asleep,  is  supposed 
to  be  a  picture  of  his  wife  Magia  with  the  little  Raphael. 
Giovanni  can  only  have  grounded  his  son  in  the  first  rudi- 
ments of  his  art,  for  he  died  on  August  I,  1494,  after  mar- 
rying a  second  time  in  1492.  Raphael's  actual  teacher, 
according  to  Vasari's  account,  was  Pietro  Vannucci,  called 
"il  Perugino"  (born  1446,  died  1534),  the  head  of  what  is 
called  the  Umbrian  school  of  painting,  whose  special  char- 
acteristic is  a  tender,  poetic  feeling  combined  with  a  certain 
timidity  of  expression  in  form  and  colour.  But  Vasari  is 
evidently  mistaken  in  his  story  that  Giovanni  Santi  brought 
the  boy  to  Vannucci  at  Perugia  during  his  mother's  life- 
time. Raphael  probably  entered  the  studio  at  the  age  of 
seventeen,  for  up  to  the  year  1500,  the  master's  engage- 
ments kept  him  almost  constantly  employed  for  years  to- 
gether at  a  distance  from  Perugia. 

About  a  day's  journey  to  the  north  of  Perugia,  in  the 
upper  valley  of  the  Tiber,  lies  the  little  town  of  Citta  di 
Castello.  Here  Raphael  was  led  by  several  commissions 
after  the  completion  of  the  Coronation  of  the  Virgin. 


POPE  JULIUS  ii  333 

While  Raphael  was  working  at  Citta  di  Castello,  Pintu- 
ricchio  was  engaged  in  adorning  with  frescoes  the  Cathedral 
library  at  Siena,  as  a  commission  from  Pope  Pius  III. 
Vasari  reports  that  the  painter  sent  for  Raphael  to  Siena  to 
assist  him  with  the  cartoons  for  these  wall-paintings.  In 
this  information  there  is  nothing  incredible ;  Raphael  at  the 
age  of  scarcely  one-and-twenty  might  very  well  consent 
with  pleasure  to  act  as  the  assistant  of  a  man  from  whom 
he  had  learnt  so  much.  It  would  be  a  fruitless  effort,  in- 
deed, to  endeavour  to  find  the  traces  of  Raphael's  co-opera- 
tion in  the  masterly  creation  of  Pinturicchio ;  for  if  an 
older  painter  trusts  a  younger  one  so  far  as  to  allow  him  to 
help  in  a  great  work,  yet  he  does  not  usually  permit  him  to 
introduce  anything  of  his  own.  At  any  rate  Raphael  did 
not  stay  long  at  Siena.  He  was  anxious  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  Florence,  the  chief  seat  of  art  in  Italy  at 
that  time,  where,  too,  his  former  teacher  had  set  up  his 
studio.  Before  Raphael  removed  to  Florence,  he  paid  a 
visit  to  his  native  town.  Here  events  of  a  warlike  nature 
had  taken  place  in  the  meantime.  Duke  Guidobaldo 
Montefeltro  had  been  driven  out  by  Cesare  Borgia,  but  had 
once  more  taken  possession  of  his  hereditary  dominion  in 
the  year  1503,  amidst  the  rejoicings  of  the  population.  In 
the  same  year,  Giuliano  della  Rovere,  whose  brother  was 
married  to  the  Duke's  sister  Giovanna,  ascended  the  papal 
chair  as  Julius  II.  Under  the  protection  of  this  influential 
relationship  peace  remained  secured  to  the  Duchy  of  Urbino. 
That  active  intellectual  life,  which  has  invested  the  princely 
courts  of  Italy  of  the  period  of  the  Renaissance  with  so 


334  POPE  JULIUS  n 

peculiar  a  lustre  and  charm  in  the  memory  of  the  after- 
world,  unfolded  itself  without  disturbance  at  the  court  of 
Guidobaldo.  Raphael,  too,  was  drawn  into  the  select  cir- 
cle, the  soul  of  which  was  the  beautiful  and  talented  wife 
of  the  Duke,  Elisabetta  Gonzaga,  the  grand-daughter  of 
a  princess  of  the  house  of  Hohenzollern.  Next  to  the 
Duchess  Elisabetta,  the  Duke's  sister,  Giovanna  della 
Rovere,  was  a  special  patroness  of  the  young  artist,  whose 
first  achievements  promised  already  clearly  enough  that  he 
would  one  day  prove  the  glory  of  his  native  town.  Pro- 
vided with  a  cordial  recommendation  from  the  Duchess 
Giovanna  to  the  Gonfaloniere  of  Florence,  Piero  Soderini, 
Raphael,  in  the  autumn  of  the  year,  1504,  entered  the  flour- 
ishing capital  of  Tuscany. 

In  the  year  1506,  Raphael  painted  a  St.  George  for  his 
Duke,  Guidobaldo.  He  had  once  already  taken  the  patron 
saint  of  chivalry  as  the  subject  of  a  picture.  This  older 
painting  is  now  to  be  found  as  a  companion  to  the  still 
earlier  St.  Michael,  with  which  it  corresponds  exactly  in 
dimensions  in  the  Louvre.  While  we  see  in  the  archangel 
the  very  embodiment  of  victory,  we  behold  in  St.  George, 
the  human  warrior,  the  stress  of  conflict.  Duke  Guido- 
baldo had  ordered  the  picture  as  a  present  for  King  Henry 
VII.  of  England,  in  return  for  the  Order  of  the  Garter 
which  had  been  bestowed  on  him.  Accordingly  the  saint 
appears  clearly  characterized  as  the  patron  of  this  Order  by 
a  blue  band  under  the  knee,  on  which  the  word  "  honi "  can 
be  read. 

In  the  summer  of  1506   Count  Baldassare   Castiglione 


POPE  JULIUS  ii  335 

travelled  to  London  as  envoy  of  the  Duke  to  deliver  the 
picture.  It  is  now  in  the  Hermitage  at  St.  Petersburg.  A 
careful  drawing  on  the  scale  in  which  the  picture  was 
carried  out,  perforated  with  pin-holes  for  the  transfer  to  the 
panel,  is  in  the  collection  of  the  Uffizi  at  Florence. 

It  is  possible  that  this  picture  took  Raphael  again  to 
Urbino;  in  this  case  it  may,  perhaps,  be  supposed  that 
Pope  Julius  II.,  who  spent  three  days  with  his  relative  at 
Urbino  on  his  progress  to  Bologna  in  September,  1506, 
may  have  there  first  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  young 
artist  who  was  soon  afterwards  to  produce  such  magnificent 
masterpieces  in  his  service. 

On  the  great  turning-point  in  Raphael's  life,  his  sum- 
mons to  Rome  to  enter  the  service  of  the  Pope,  Vasari 
gives  the  following  information  :  u  Bramante  of  Urbino, 
who  was  in  the  service  of  Julius  II.,  wrote  to  Raphael, 
since  he  was  distantly  related  to  him  and  came  from  the 
same  place,  that  he  had  obtained  the  consent  of  the  Pope, 
who  had  had  some  new  apartments  constructed,  to  let 
Raphael  display  his  powers  in  them.  The  proposal 
pleased  Raphael  so  that  he  abandoned  his  work  at 
Florence  and  moved  to  Rome." 

Bramante  (born  at  Monte  Asdrualdo  near  Urbino  about 
1444)  had  been  occupied  for  several  years  with  the  Pope's 
gigantic  enterprise,  the  rebuilding  of  Saint  Peter's,  Michel- 
angelo had  been  painting  the  ceiling  of  the  Sistine  Chapel 
since  the  spring  of  1508.  Now  Raphael  arrived,  to  make 
the  third  star  of  the  constellation,  the  splendour  of  which 
would  suffice  by  itself  to  make  the  name  of  Julius  II. 


336  POPE  JULIUS  ii 

immortal,  even  if  the  politician  and  warrior-pope  had  done 
nothing  to  secure  for  himself  imperishable  renown  beyond 
setting  for  these  three  men  their  sublime  and  magnificent 
tasks. 

Raphael  has  handed  down  to  us  the  features  of  the  Pope 
who  made  Rome  the  capital  of  the  world  of  art,  so  that 
the  former  glory  of  Florence  paled  beside  that  of  Rome. 
The  portrait  dates  from  the  last  years  of  the  life  of 
Julius  II. ;  the  burden  of  old  age  has  bowed  the  mighty 
shoulders,  the  full  beard  falls  white  over  the  breast,  the 
eyelids  have  grown  heavy  ;  but  the  fire  is  not  yet  quenched 
in  the  eyes,  which  rest  in  deep  hollows  under  the  powerful 
forehead,  and  the  expression  of  an  iron  will  and  energy 
bent  on  its  purpose  lies  in  the  contracted  brows  and  closely 
shut  mouth.  The  whole  personality  of  the  aged  man,  who 
sits  with  his  elbows  propped  on  the  arms  of  his  chair  is  so 
convincing,  so  full  of  life,  that  we  can  well  understand  the 
words  of  Vasari,  that  the  picture  was  so  true  to  nature  that 
it  made  the  beholders  tremble,  as  if  Pope  Julius  were  pres- 
ent in  the  body.  The  magnificent  portrait  was  copied 
repeatedly  soon  after  it  came  into  existence,  and  that,  in 
some  cases,  by  such  skilful  hands  that  it  is  no  longer  cer- 
tain which  is  the  original ;  the  two  examples  in  Florence 
especially  (one  in  the  Tribune,  the  other  in  the  Pitti 
Palace)  contend  for  precedence. 

In  the  autumn  of  1508  Raphael  was  in  the  service  of 
the  Pope ;  he  was  overwhelmed  with  work  and  employed 
a  number  of  assistants.  The  Pope's  newly  constructed 
chambers,  of  which  Bramante  wrote  to  Raphael,  are  the 


POPE  JULIUS  n  337 

apartments  of  the  Vatican  Palace  known  as  the  "  Stanze." 
Raphael,  who  was  received  with  great  kindness  by  the 
Pope,  began  his  work  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  in  the 
"  Stanza  della  Segnatura,"  which  received  this  name  be- 
cause the  popes  were  accustomed  to  sign  dispensations  in 
it.  The  most  famous  painters  had  already  exerted  them- 
selves in  rivalry  to  adorn  the  apartments  of  the  Vatican, 
and  a  number  of  masters  of  established  reputation,  among 
them  Perugino,  were  still  employed  in  doing  so.  In  the 
"Stanza  della  Segnatura"  the  ceiling  had  already  been 
painted  by  Giovanni  Antonio  Bazzi  (called  Sodoma)  of 
Vercelli.  But  when  Raphael  had  completed  a  part  of  his 
work,  the  Pope  had  the  other  paintings  stripped  off,  in 
order  to  transfer  the  whole  to  the  youth  who  threw  old 
masters  and  new  alike  into  the  shade. 


THE  DUCHESS  OF  DEVONSHIRE 

(Gainsborough) 

MRS.  ARTHUR  BELL 

IT  was  Gainsborough  who  painted  the  earliest  of  the 
many  portraits  of  the  celebrated  eldest  daughter  of  the 
first  Earl  and  Countess  Spencer,  who,  as  the  Duchess  of 
Devonshire,  became  the  leader  of  fashionable  society  in 
London.  In  this  first  portrait  she  is  represented  as  a 
charming  little  maiden  of  six  or  seven  years  old,  giving 
promise  even  then  of  her  remarkable  charms.  In  later 
portraits  by  Gainsborough  and  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  with 
whom  she  was  a  very  great  favourite,  this  promise  is  seen 
to  be  abundantly  fulfilled.  She  was  married  at  the  early 
age  of  seventeen  to  William,  the  fifth  Duke  of  Devonshire, 
when,  as  Walpole  says  in  a  letter  to  Mann,  "  She  was  a 
lively  girl,  natural  and  full  of  grace."  She  very  soon  be- 
came "  the  irresistible  queen  of  ton,"  eclipsing  all  rivals ; 
the  most  brilliant  of  the  gay  throng  who  danced  and  played 
the  nights  away  at  the  Ladies'  Club,  masqueraded  at  the 
Pantheon,  and  promenaded  at  Ranelagh.  On  one  occasion 
the  Duchess  is  said  to  have  won  £900  in  a  day,  and  on 
another  to  have  lost  £1,500,  when  she  was  handed,  literally 
sobbing  with  remorse,  into  her  carriage  by  Sheridan.  In 
spite  of  this  weakness,  however,  Marie  Antoinette,  but  two 
years  the  senior  of  the  Duchess,  "had  scarcely  a  gayer, 


THE  DUCHESS    OF    DEVONSHIRE 


THE  DUCHESS  OF  DEVONSHIRE  339 

more  devoted,  or  more  obsequious  court."  Contemporary 
letters  teem  with  allusions  to  the  Duchess  from  her  first 
appearance  in  London  Society,  as  the  loveliest  bride  of  the 
season,  to  her  death  in  1806.  A  year  after  her  marriage 
she  is  setting  the  fashion  of  the  addition  to  the  already 
absurdly  high  coiffures  of  ostrich  plumes  that  Wraxall 
says :  "  Those  who  wished  to  have  ostrich  plumes  as 
long  as  the  Duchess's,  searched  London  in  vain,  until  an 
undertaker  was  induced  to  sell  feathers  from  a  hearse."  In 
1776,  Fanny  Burney,  writing  to  her  dear  Daddy  Crisp, 
speaks  of  having  met  in  the  Park,  the  "young  and  hand- 
some Duchess  of  Devonshire,"  and  severely  criticises  her 
because  "  two  of  her  curls  had  come  unpinned 
and  her  cloak  .  .  .  was  flung  half  on  and  half 
off.  .  .  ."  "  Every  creature,"  she  adds,  "  turned  back 
to  stare  at  her :  she  has  a  look  of  innocence  and  artless- 
ness  that  made  me  quite  sorry  she  should  be  so  foolishly 
negligent  of  her  person."  This  severe  critic  adds  that 
"  the  Duke,  on  whose  arm  the  bride  was  leaning,  was  ugly, 
tidy,  and  grave-looking,  like  a  very  mean  shopkeeper's 
journeyman."  Truth  to  tell,  the  "  greatest  match  in  Eng- 
land," though  he  thought  himself  something  of  a  dandy 
and  a  poet,  must  have  acted  very  much  as  a  foil  to  his  fair 
bride.  Mrs.  Delany  says  that  the  "  jewel  "  her  friend  the 
Duchess  had  won  had  not  been  well  polished ;  and  Wrax- 
all remarks  that  "  constitutional  apathy  formed  his  most 
distinguished  characteristic."  In  the  fierce  political  strug- 
gle of  1783  and  1784 — when  the  whole  country  was 
divided  into  two  factions,  each  hating  the  other  with  a 


34°       THE  DUCHESS  OF  DEVONSHIRE 

perfect  hatred ;  and  when,  as  Walpole  said,  u  politics  were 
all  in  all,  and  little  girls  asked  each  other  before  they  would 
make  friends  :  '  Pray,  miss,  of  which  side  are  you  ? '  " — 
the  biographers  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  tell  how  difficult  it 
was  for  the  great  artist's  sitters,  who  were  most  of  them  on 
the  popular  side,  to  get  to  his  painting-room  through  the 
fighting-mobs  in  Leicester  Fields ;  but  that  the  Duchess  of 
Devonshire  and  her  friend,  Mrs.  Crewe,  moved  about  like 
beings  from  another  sphere,  courting,  cajoling,  and  canvass- 
ing on  behalf  of  Fox. 

Rowlandson,  that  keen  satirist  of  both  parties  to  the  con- 
test, published  a  print  called  Political  Affections,  in  which  the 
Duchess  is  represented  nursing  a  Fox-cub,  whilst  her  own 
child  is  wailing  unnoticed  in  his  cradle.  Many,  too,  were 
the  coarse,  anonymous  rhymes,  reflecting  on  the  Duchess's 
eager  advocacy  of  Fox,  which  were  circulated  about  the 
town.  In  one,  she  is  even  charged  with  having  bought  a 
vote  from  a  certain  Marrowbones,  a  butcher  of  Westmin- 
ster, with  a  kiss ;  but  in  spite  of  all  her  efforts,  all  her  con- 
descensions, all  her  "  thunderings  at  each  door,"  Fox  was 
defeated,  and  Baron  Hood,  whose  portrait  Gainsborough 
also  painted,  reigned  in  his  stead. 

In  1791,  two  years  before  her  own  marriage  to  General 
D'  Arblay,  Fanny  Burney,  fresh  from  her  drudgery  as 
Keeper  of  the  Robes  at  Court,  met  the  Duchess  of  Devon- 
shire and  her  children  at  Bath,  and  says  of  her :  "  I  did  not 
find  so  much  beauty  in  her  as  I  expected,  but  I  found  far 
more  of  manner,  politeness  and  gentle  spirit.  She  seems 


THE  DUCHESS  OF  DEVONSHIRE  341 

by  nature  to  possess  the  highest  animal  spirits,  but  she  ap- 
peared to  me  not  happy.  I  thought  she  looked  oppressed 
within,  though  there  is  a  native  cheerfulness  about  her 
which,  I  fancy,  never  deserts  her."  Whilst  the  two  were 
conversing  in  what  Fanny  calls  "  a  soberly,  sensible,  and 
quiet  manner  "  on  various  topics,  including  the  then  delicate 
subject  of  the  King's  mental  illness  and  the  Queen's  dis- 
tress, the  Duchess's  little  daughter,  Lady  Georgiana,  who 
might  have  been  the  original  of  Gainsborough's  first  por- 
trait of  her  mother,  ran  in  with  a  request  to  be  allowed  to 
go  into  the  garden  to  see  some  poor  little  girls  eat  a  meal 
provided  for  them  by  her  grandmother,  Countess  Spencer. 
No  one  who  saw  the  Duchess's  now  worn  but  still  beauti- 
ful face  light  up  as  she  listened  to  the  little  maid's  pleading, 
or  who  heard  her  express  her  fear  that  "  there  might  be 
some  illness  or  disorder  amongst  the  poor  things,"  could 
fail  to  feel  how  utterly  unfounded  were  the  charges  brought 
against  her  of  being  an  unnatural  mother,  or  how  true  it 
was  that  she  found  her  best  comfort  for  the  loss  of  her  hus- 
band's erratic  affections  in  the  care  of  her  little  ones. 

Of  her  later  portrait  by  the  great  Suffolk  artist,  exhibited 
at  the  Academy  in  1778,  the  story  is  told  that  he  "  drew  a 
wet  pencil  across  a  mouth  which  all  who  saw  it  thought 
exquisitely  lovely,"  saying :  "  Her  Grace  is  too  hard  for 
me,"  and  of  which  Allan  Cunningham  says :  "  The  daz- 
zling beauty  of  the  Duchess,  and  the  sense  she  entertained 
of  the  charms  of  her  looks  and  her  conversation,  took  away 
that  readiness  of  hand,  that  hasty  happiness  of  touch,  which 
belonged  to  Gainsborough  in  his  ordinary  moments.  The 


342        THE  DUCHESS  OF  DEVONSHIRE 

portrait  was  so  little  to  his  satisfaction  that  he  refused  to 
send  it  to  Chatsworth. 

Horace  Walpole  characterized  this  portrait,  which  is 
now  lost,  as  bad  and  washy ;  but  then  his  great  friend, 
Lady  Diana  Beauclerk,  formerly  Lady  Bolingbroke,  also 
exhibited  a  portrait  of  the  Duchess  in  1778,  and  Walpole 
was  determined  that  it  should  be  the  picture  of  the  year. 
A  second  portrait  of  the  Duchess,  also  lost,  having,  it  is 
said,  been  cut  out  of  its  frame  by  a  thief  still  undiscovered, 
was  bought  by  Messrs.  Agnew  at  the  Wynn  Ellis  sale  for 
£10,605. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


V°4f?ft 

'  ;;  -: 

REC  D  LD 

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OCT« 

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LAJf                ^y      lyCXx 

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AiiJQ  1  p  lOftn 

MAY  1 

J  JL  w    190^7 

1        ^fCEiVED 
C"  C"  D    >^   i4    ILiUI* 

RECTDL 


JUN  0  b  r 


JUN-82006 


^•lA^OHiVM  O^^SS^oSSSmi, 

79  Berkeley 


GENERAL  LIBRARY  -  U.C.  BERKELEY 


